PILLARS IN THE MAKING, INDUSTRY 4.0 ON THE HORIZON

Abstract

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) marks a new era in manufacturing and has attracted notable attention from practitioners and researchers. Current production processes are being transformed towards interconnecting the elements of manufacturing systems as a result of digitization. Adopting new technologies is an indispensable practice to compete and sustain business concerns. In this paper, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a multi-criteria decision-making methodology, is employed to evaluate and weigh the nine pillars that are the building blocks of an I4.0 system. The assessment model suggests three dimensions, nine pillars, and thirty-four sub-pillars which are evaluated by fourteen I4.0 professionals responding to a pairwise questionnaire. The results are important as they reflect the opinions of the professionals and can help define strategies for companies investing in I4.0 technologies by elucidating the relative impacts of factors in an I4.0 environment.