Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how much the Italian manufacturing companies are ready to be concretely involved in the so-called “Industry 4.0” (I4.0) journey. In particular, this paper focuses on analyzing the knowledge and adoption levels of specific I4.0 enabling technologies, also considering how organizations are involved and which are the main benefits and obstacles.

Design/methodology/approach

A descriptive survey has been carried out on a total of 103 respondents related to manufacturing companies of different sizes. Data collected were analyzed in order to answer five specific research questions.

Findings

The findings from the survey demonstrate that Italian manufacturing companies are in different positions in their journey toward the I4.0 paradigm, mainly depending on their size and informatization level. Furthermore, not all the business functions are adequately involved in this transformation and their awareness about this new paradigm seems quite low because of the absence of specific managerial roles to guide this revolution. Finally, there are strong differences concerning both benefits and obstacles related to the adoption of I4.0 paradigm, depending on the technology adoption level.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should focus on developing case studies about pilot I4.0 practitioners in order to understand the root cause of successful cases. Both managerial and practical references should be developed, helping Italian manufacturing enterprises to consolidate and strengthen their position in global competitive market. Finally, it would be interesting to carry out the same study in other countries in order to make comparisons and suitable benchmark analyses.

Originality/value

Despite scholars have debated about the adoption of technologies and the benefits related to the I4.0 paradigm, to the best of authors’ knowledge, only a few empirical surveys have been carried out until now on the adoption level of I4.0 principles in the manufacturing sector of a specific country.

中文翻译：

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工业4.0的影响：意大利制造业的描述性调查

目的

本文的目的是调查意大利制造公司准备好具体参与所谓的“工业4.0”（I4.0）之旅的程度。特别是，本文着重分析特定的I4.0支持技术的知识和采用水平，还考虑了组织如何参与以及哪些是主要收益和障碍。

设计/方法/方法

对涉及不同规模制造公司的103名受访者进行了描述性调查。分析收集的数据以回答五个特定的研究问题。

发现

调查的结果表明，意大利制造公司在迈向I4.0范式的过程中处于不同的位置，这主要取决于它们的规模和信息化水平。此外，并非所有业务职能都充分参与了这种转型，由于缺乏指导这场革命的具体管理角色，他们对这种新范式的认识似乎很低。最后，取决于采用的技术水平，在采用I4.0范式方面的利益和障碍方面都存在很大差异。

研究局限/意义

未来的研究应着重于开发有关I4.0飞行员的案例研究，以了解成功案例的根本原因。应开发管理参考和实践参考，以帮助意大利制造企业巩固和加强其在全球竞争市场中的地位。最后，在其他国家进行相同的研究以进行比较和进行适当的基准分析将很有趣。

创意/价值

尽管学者们就技术的采用以及与I4.0范式相关的益处进行了辩论，但据作者所知，到目前为止，在I4.0原理的采用水平上，仅进行了一些实证调查。特定国家/地区的制造业。