Industry 4.0 strategies and technological developments. An exploratory research from Italian manufacturing companies

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the Industry 4.0 technologies adopted in Italy and whether they are leveraged to pursue specific manufacturing strategies. A survey was conducted among Italian manufacturing plants with the collection of 200 usable questionnaires. To provide context to the statistical results, respondents were also asked to discuss and provide suggestions about the difficulties and pitfalls encountered. The results show that while these technologies do not contribute to any significant improvement in environmental sustainability, other strategies such as Servitization, Design-to-cost, Supply chain integration and Machinery-electronic equipment-and database integration, as well as Lean strategy are enabled through the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. Our findings, accompanied with the suggestions made by the Italian respondents, provide a useful insight for both researchers and practitioners as to what kind of benefits can be achieved through Industry 4.0 solutions and the main areas of concern in their implementation.

Keywords:

• Industry 4.0
• strategy
• manufacturing industry
• manufacturing strategy
• cyber technologies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrea Chiarini

Andrea Chiarini is Senior Lecturer of Operations Management at the University of Verona – Italy. He has been a consultant and trainer to a range of manufacturing and service firms on TQM and Lean Six Sigma. Along with other partners he set up in Italy Chiarini & Associati a consulting firm dedicated to Lean Production, Six Sigma, IATF 16949, Industry 4.0 and Management Accounting. He has taught in Post-Graduate courses and short courses for Executives. Senior Member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), he serves in the editorial boards of Business Strategy and the Environment, Leadership in Healthcare, the Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management and the TQM Journal.

Valeria Belvedere

Valeria Belvedere is Assistant Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, where she teaches Supply Chain Management and Logistics & Operations Management. Her main fields of research and teaching are performance measurement and management, manufacturing strategy, and supply chain management.

Alberto Grando

Alberto Grando is Professor of Operations Management at Bocconi University, Milan, where he teaches Operations Management, Sustainable Operations Management and Innovation and Technology Management. He is also Professor of Production & Supply Chain Management at the Operations and Technology Management Unit of SDA Bocconi School of Management. His research interests are operations performances measurement, supply chain management, logistics and production management.