Knowledge Transfer and Introduction of Industry 4.0 in SMEs: A Five-Step Methodology to Introduce Industry 4.0

Abstract

Industry 4.0 is for most companies and especially for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) one of the major challenges after the wave of lean management. The aim of this chapter is to provide a methodological guidance for the practical use of the Industry 4.0 vision and principles in production system design in the specific context of SMEs. Based on the analysis of literature, a procedure model for the target-oriented introduction of Industry 4.0 principles in SMEs is proposed. A first practical evaluation of the approach is carried out based on two industrial case studies. The experiences made in the industrial cases show that Industry 4.0 is not limited to the application in large enterprises but is very suitable also for SME. This chapter contributes, with its case-study-based methodology, to the existing sparse knowledge on the introduction of Industry 4.0 in SME production systems.