The digital transformation of industrial companies toward Smart Factories & Smart Services
Type
habilitation
Date Issued
2024
Author(s)
Abstract
The challenges faced by industrial firms in high-cost countries are manifold. Being always
under pressure to improve productivity and quality of products and services at the same time,
firms are forced to innovate in order to stay competitive and improve their position in the
global markets. The uncertainties resulting from global geopolitical tensions, inflation, and
supply chain vulnerabilities have increased recently considerably and come with novel
challenges, including the security of supply, for businesses operating in European countries.
Information asymmetries across global supply chains hamper plannability as well as a
reorganization of robust and resilient supply chain and production systems.
A major lever to address these challenges could be digitalization, the fourth industrial
revolution also known under the terms “Industry 4.0”, “smart factory” and “smart
manufacturing”. Industry 4.0 brings disruptive changes and opportunities to operations
management and existing industrial business models through the integration of new digital
technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Cloud computing, big data
analytics, and artificial intelligence. Despite the fact that benefits of productivity and flexibility
gains are promising, transformation toward smart manufacturing (smart factory) and digital
services is complex. To date, research has prioritized this transformation from a
predominantly technological perspective, neglecting issues of the business relevance, the
impact on organizational aspects, and existing theories and sound concepts to foster this
transformation. The pathways to smart manufacturing and digital services are still heavily
underrepresented in research.
Therefore, this thesis discusses the business potential of digital technologies for smart
manufacturing and new business models and how existing operations management concepts
change to foster this transformation. Part one (Part A) provides an overview about Industry
4.0 in general and the smart factory as a key construct of the digitalization in industrial
companies (Part A, chapter 1-2). The second part (Part B) discusses managerial practices to
guide transformation toward smart manufacturing. In the third part (Part C), specific assistant
systems are designed to show the potential of digital technologies and the impact on
operational management theories. Beside the productivity driven perspective, the fourth part
(Part D) examines new digital services and new business models (digital platforms) enabled by
digital technologies, complementing the role of a smart factory. The fifth part (Part E)
concludes this thesis with a further outlook for future research activities of manufacturing and
digital services.
under pressure to improve productivity and quality of products and services at the same time,
firms are forced to innovate in order to stay competitive and improve their position in the
global markets. The uncertainties resulting from global geopolitical tensions, inflation, and
supply chain vulnerabilities have increased recently considerably and come with novel
challenges, including the security of supply, for businesses operating in European countries.
Information asymmetries across global supply chains hamper plannability as well as a
reorganization of robust and resilient supply chain and production systems.
A major lever to address these challenges could be digitalization, the fourth industrial
revolution also known under the terms “Industry 4.0”, “smart factory” and “smart
manufacturing”. Industry 4.0 brings disruptive changes and opportunities to operations
management and existing industrial business models through the integration of new digital
technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Cloud computing, big data
analytics, and artificial intelligence. Despite the fact that benefits of productivity and flexibility
gains are promising, transformation toward smart manufacturing (smart factory) and digital
services is complex. To date, research has prioritized this transformation from a
predominantly technological perspective, neglecting issues of the business relevance, the
impact on organizational aspects, and existing theories and sound concepts to foster this
transformation. The pathways to smart manufacturing and digital services are still heavily
underrepresented in research.
Therefore, this thesis discusses the business potential of digital technologies for smart
manufacturing and new business models and how existing operations management concepts
change to foster this transformation. Part one (Part A) provides an overview about Industry
4.0 in general and the smart factory as a key construct of the digitalization in industrial
companies (Part A, chapter 1-2). The second part (Part B) discusses managerial practices to
guide transformation toward smart manufacturing. In the third part (Part C), specific assistant
systems are designed to show the potential of digital technologies and the impact on
operational management theories. Beside the productivity driven perspective, the fourth part
(Part D) examines new digital services and new business models (digital platforms) enabled by
digital technologies, complementing the role of a smart factory. The fifth part (Part E)
concludes this thesis with a further outlook for future research activities of manufacturing and
digital services.
Language
English (United States)
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