Ready for Industry 4.0a Study of SMEs in Spain

Abstract

Industry 4.0 is one paradigm that is expected to change industrial SMEs performance. In this context, the work presented in this paper analyzes the paradigm of Industry 4.0 among 35 SMEs in Spain, participating in a project to share, discuss, understand, and plan their Industry 4.0 individual roadmap. Objectives, barriers, and interests regarding Industry 4.0 are discussed and compared with regard to company size, and other business key factors. The results presented in this exploratory research emphasize the differences among micro, small and medium SMEs when approaching Industry 4.0. Besides, the study identifies different Industry 4.0 technologies’ importance for SMEs, as well as different balance for them depending on the company size and their value proposition. Barriers toward Industry 4.0 seem to be also very different with regard to the company size, what is consistent with other research results. Furthermore, the research also arises the spread of existing awareness about Industry 4.0 and the risk for smaller SMEs. This ongoing research gives an insight into the novel studies about Industry 4.0 in SMEs and deepens the knowledge for future research.