Abstract

This paper empirically examines the effects of customers who invested in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on the technological capabilities of a firm for upgrading toward Industry 4.0. This paper focuses on three groups of firm technological capabilities such as production planning, inventory management, and data analysis. Each group consists of four levels of technological capabilities ranging from the fundamental to the most complex levels of technology usage. A hierarchical multiple linear regression method is used to analyze 141 respondents collected from the Thai manufacturing firms during March–April 2019. The results indicate that customers who invested in ICTs significantly and positively affect the technological capability upgrading of a firm in the groups of production planning, inventory management, and data analysis. However, there is no evidence to support that customers who invested in ICTs have positively affected firms to achieve the most complex levels of technology usage in these three groups. For the engineering implications, managers are encouraged to work closely with customers, especially customers with high technological capability. This could help a firm’s engineering teams to upgrade and catch up with customer technologies.

摘要

本文实证检验了投资于信息和通信技术 (ICT) 的客户对企业向工业 4.0 升级的技术能力的影响。本文重点关注生产计划、库存管理和数据分析等三组企业技术能力。每个组由四个级别的技术能力组成，从基础到最复杂的技术使用级别。使用分层多元线性回归方法分析了 2019 年 3 月至 4 月期间从泰国制造公司收集的 141 名受访者。结果表明，投资 ICT 的客户对生产计划组中公司的技术能力升级有显着且积极的影响、库存管理和数据分析。然而，没有证据表明投资于 ICT 的客户对公司在这三组中实现最复杂的技术使用水平产生了积极影响。对于工程方面的影响，鼓励管理人员与客户密切合作，特别是与具有高技术能力的客户。这可以帮助公司的工程团队升级并赶上客户技术。