Digital and smart industrial transformation for SMEs

graduate intern assignment | Aug. 17, 2021

Industry 4.0 is changing manufacturing drastically. Industry 4.0 enables mass customization, with high value and cost effective manufacturing. Dutch high-tech manufacturers, particularly SMEs, know the benefits but have still challenges to transform their factories into factories of the future.

Yet, this requires drastic changes in production planning, scheduling, inventory and maintenance planning as well as investment decisions in key technologies (e.g., IIOT, vertical and horizontal integration, AI, big data, cloud, digital twin, sensors, augmented reality, additive manufacturing, autonomous robots, cybersecurity, see Bibby and Dehe, 2018 and Alcácer and Cruz-Machado, 2019) to enable digital transformation. This also requires organization changes (standardization, collaboration with customers and suppliers, employees and organizational culture).

Global Electronics is an SME and looking for a thorough analysis and roadmap to make changes that will facilitate them to be a pioneer in their market. The company has set up an assignment to identify the needs and directions that they need to make the transformation. The deliverables in this assignment are

The deliverables in this assignment are:

Expected start: September 2021

Assistant professor: Engin Topman, University of Twente

Bibby, L., & Dehe, B. (2018). Defining and assessing industry 4.0 maturity levels-case of the defense sector. Production Planning & Control, 29(12), 1030-1043.
Alcácer, V., & Cruz-Machado, V. (2019). Scanning the industry 4.0: A literature review on technologies for manufacturing systems. Engineering science and technology, an international journal, 22(3), 899-919.
Mittal, S., Khan, M. A., Romero, D., & Wuest, T. (2019). Smart manufacturing: Characteristics, technologies and enabling factors. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 233(5), 1342-1361.
Cotrino, A., Sebastián, M. A., & González-Gaya, C. (2020). Industry 4.0 Roadmap: Implementation for small and medium-sized enterprises. Applied Sciences, 10(23), 8566.
Venkataramani, S. (2021, July 16). Smart manufacturing strategies are still nascent. To capture the benefits, manufacturing operations leaders can start with six key actions. Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/6-key-actions-for-a-successful-smart-manufacturing-strategy/
Korne, T. (2017). How to Start with Industry 4.0 in SMEs [PDF slides]. IPL - Institute for Production and Logistics Systems https://digital4industry.lu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IPL_FEDIL_Presentation_20171124.pdf

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