Building Industry 4.0 Introduction Scenarios for SMEs : A Digital Business Modelling Approach

Company size is a critical factor for the Industry 4.0 adoption since larger companies are more likely to deploy I4.0 processes technologies rather than SMEs. Given the lack of a standardisation procedure regarding the I4.0 initiative, SMEs lack of strategy and management scenarios for I4.0 implementation. As SMEs are mainly based on manual and hybrid activities and thus are mainly focus on specialised markets, they paid less attention to higher efficiency, which is a main gain of I4.0. In addition, the use of available consistent data is of paramount importance for a Industry 4.0 roadmap both vertically and horizontally across the value chain. ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning), MES (Manufacturing Enterprise Systems) are some examples towards an horizontal implementation of data selection and exploitation. On the other hand, vertical solutions of integrating various IT systems into a seamless way is usually in absence when it comes to an SME. The adoption of an Industry 4.0 introduction scenario tends to be a difficult task for SMEs, expecially when it deals with interconnection and information transparency topics (Hermann, Pentek, & Otto, 2016). The multidimensional nature of Industry 4.0 along with the facing difficulties to identify and introduce Industry 4.0 scenarios, necessitates a solid framework of the “systemization of knowledge” and the description of critical parameters and components. The paper contributes by exploiting a digital business model innovation perspective, namely Business Model Canvas in order to provide a comprehensive framework for building I4.0 scenarios in case of SMEs