Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature and offer a more generalizable empirical investigation on the performance impact of implementing Industry 4.0, and the way important contingency factors (plant size, multinational status, country context) affect implementation efforts.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a systematic literature review, the empirical research is based on a large-scale survey of 705 manufacturing plants from 22 countries. Structural equation modeling is employed to discover the relationships between the main constructs of interest, complemented with subgroup analyses to offer a more detailed understanding of the main effects.

Findings

We provide evidence that technologies enabling Industry 4.0 have a positive impact on operational performance, including cost, quality, delivery and flexibility performance. Results of the analyses further indicate that (1) larger firms invest more in implementing Industry 4.0 technologies, (2) manufacturing firms in less competitive countries, especially in the South-East Asian region invest significantly more effort than competitive countries, while (3) multinational companies have no advantage over local firms.

Research limitations/implications

The survey data employed in this study refers to the early years of companies embracing Industry 4.0 solutions, and thus does not contain the most recent advances in manufacturing technologies.

Originality/value

The paper represents one of the first studies in the literature to assess on a large-scale survey the performance impact of Industry 4.0 technologies, as well as the main contingency factors affecting the implementation of these technologies.

中文翻译：

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工业4.0：偶然性和绩效影响的回顾和分析

目的

本文的目的是回顾文献，并对实施工业4.0的绩效影响以及重要的意外因素（工厂规模，跨国公司地位，国家/地区）影响实施工作的方式进行更一般化的实证研究。

设计/方法/方法

经过系统的文献综述，实证研究基于对22个国家的705家制造工厂的大规模调查。使用结构方程模型来发现感兴趣的主要结构之间的关系，并辅以子组分析以提供对主要效果的更详细的了解。

发现

我们提供的证据表明，支持工业4.0的技术会对运营绩效产生积极影响，包括成本，质量，交付和灵活性绩效。分析结果进一步表明，（1）较大的公司在实施工业4.0技术方面投入了更多的资金；（2）在竞争较弱的国家（尤其是在东南亚地区）的制造公司比竞争性国家的投入明显更多，而（3）跨国公司没有本地公司的优势。

研究局限/意义

本研究中使用的调查数据是指公司采用工业4.0解决方案的早期阶段，因此不包含制造技术方面的最新进展。

创意/价值

该论文是文献中首次评估大规模调查工业4.0技术的性能影响以及影响这些技术实施的主要偶然因素的研究之一。