The digitalization of manufacturing: investigating the impact of production environment and company size
Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management
ISSN: 1741-038X
Article publication date: 29 October 2020
Issue publication date: 24 March 2021
Abstract
Purpose
While manufacturing digitalization is currently considered an important enabler of competitive advantage, its applicability across the industrial spectrum is unclear. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the use of digital technologies and different production environments and company sizes. The focus is on three aspects of digitalization: shop floor digitalization, technologies for vertical and horizontal integration and organizational IT competence.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on data gathered from a survey questionnaire sent to 212 Norwegian manufacturing companies. To test the formulated hypotheses, the two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) method was used.
Findings
This study confirmed that large enterprises (LEs) have a significantly higher level of shop floor digitalization and organizational IT competence than small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Regarding the difference between production environments, no statistically significant difference in the implementation level of the investigated digitalization aspects could be found.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first studies to investigate differences in the adoption of digital technologies between different groups of production environments. This study also provides updated findings related to the relationship between digitalization and company size. The findings presented in this paper provide important insights into directing future research efforts to assist environments that are currently lagging behind in their digital transformation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the respondents who shared their time and responded to the survey. The authors would also like to thank William Wehler Knudtzon, Master's student at NTNU, for assisting in the administration of the survey, as well as Fabio Sgarbossa and Logan Reed Vallandingham for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this paper. Furthermore, the authors are grateful for comments from the guest editor, coeditors and the anonymous reviewers at JMTM, which has helped improve the paper significantly. Finally, the authors would like to acknowledge the ongoing research project Manufacturing Network 4.0 (Research Council of Norway grant number 247637) and its respective partners for supporting the research presented in this paper.
Citation
Buer, S.-V., Strandhagen, J.W., Semini, M. and Strandhagen, J.O. (2021), "The digitalization of manufacturing: investigating the impact of production environment and company size", Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 621-645. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-05-2019-0174
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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