26th International Association for Management of Technology Conference - IAMOT 2017

Due to volatile and fast moving markets, increasing competition as well as more complex products and production, industrial companies are facing increasingly intricate challenges. Experts are talking about the fourth industrial (r)evolution, also called Industry 4.0 (I4.0). I4.0 focuses on an intelligent and transdisciplinary world in which smart factories represent the connection between digital and physical production networks. According to the DESI Index (Digital Economy and Society Index), Austria is ranked in the midfield of the EU member states concerning the degree of digitization. This development confronts Austrian companies with various challenges, in particular the pressure to strongly increase the level of digitization or to define the role of humans within new processes. Due to these demands there is a great need for a systematic approach to introduce I4.0 in enterprises respectively for a tool indicating the maturity level. Recently, there have already been presented some approaches existing in the literature or research projects (e.g. I4.0 Readiness Model from VDMA, Procedure Model for I4.0 Migration according to Fraunhofer). However, a general approach is not applicable for the implementation of I4.0, since an individual transformation process is required in order to identify, evaluate and utilize the specific I4.0 potentials of the respective company. In this paper an Industry 4.0 Roadmap developed in cooperation with a renowned Austrian company is introduced aiming at a structured and individual application of Industry 4.0 actions in industrial companies. Special focus is put on the relevance of employees, additionally required competences and their role within new processes. For the development of the 6-step I4.0 Roadmap a “top down - bottom up - approach” has been used. The core of the roadmap consists of maturity models covering the fields of purchasing, production, intra-logistics, sales and employees. The maturity assessment is carried out by evaluating the different maturity levels within MS Excel and is therefore easy to apply from the technical point of view. The 6 steps include general I4.0 analysis, a maturity analysis, the determination of the target state, development and evaluation of measures as well as the application domain and the determination of the specific roadmap. However, the I4.0 strategy must be defined and supported by the management, which is responsible for the initiation of I4.0 activities. Within this paper the results for the field of employees are given. The introduced model has already been successfully applied at a company. The results of the internal evaluation are presented in the form of a network graph. This visualizes the current degree of digitization in the company and shows clearly where action is required. In addition, this paper presents exemplary measures for increasing the degree of digitization in that specific company. With the development of a structured Roadmap for the systematic increase of digitization, a framework has been created which allows companies to evaluate main areas of activity concerning their I4.0 maturity and to derive desired target conditions. The maturity model targeting employees is comprehensive across all fields of activity and covers necessary competences and organizational requirements. In order to give deeper insight in the model, this paper deals with results of the self-evaluation in the field of employees regarding their I4.0 maturity.