Determinants of information and digital technology implementation for smart manufacturing

Abstract

This study aims to identify and analyse factors that determine the implementation of Information and Digital Technologies (IDT) of smart manufacturing. By performing a state-of-the-art and content-driven review of literature, consulting a group of experts from academia and industry, and implementing interpretive structural modelling methodology, the study identified eleven enabling factors and mapped the contextual interrelationships among them. The study further explained the complex precedence relationships that exist among determinants of smart manufacturing IDT adoption. Results showed that perceived benefits and management support are the two driver determinants that act as stepping-stones in the implementation of smart manufacturing IDT. Operations technology maturity and cybersecurity maturity were found to be the dependent determinants of smart manufacturing IDT implementation and highly driven by the linkage and driver determinates. The findings are expected to assist academicians, industrialists, and the policymakers with achieving a detailed understanding of smart manufacturing transformation processes, and conditions that facilitate the manufacturing digitalisation in the Industry 4.0 era.

Keywords:

• Industry 4.0
• smart manufacturing
• manufacturing digitalisation
• industrial internet

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Adoption and implementation are interchangeable terms in this study.

2 Smart manufacturing IDT in this study refers to modern IDT that enable firms to digitalize their manufacturing operations and move toward smart manufacturing.