Self-assessment of Industry 4.0 Technologies in Intralogistics for SME’s

Abstract

The 4th industrial revolution generates a high potential for smart production systems. Many manufacturing companies considering therefore the application of cyber-physical systems in the sector of intralogistics. The aim is to achieve better logistics performance or lower costs. However, small and medium sized enterprises (SME) are hesitant about introducing Industry 4.0 technologies. They fear high implementation costs, low benefits and the lack of know-how increases the reluctance of the companies. This paper presents a procedure which enables SME’s to assess the benefits of Industry 4.0 technologies by themselves. The model follows the recognized principle: First improve your processes, then automate them: Methodical basis is a process model intralogistics, which also considers self-controlling cyber-physical systems. In addition, the benefit aspects are assigned to the individual process steps.In the specific application, the company first determines the digitization potential of the individual activities and then the associated benefits of Industry 4.0 technologies. The procedure reduces on the one hand the uncertainty regarding of wrong decisions and creates on the other hand the possibility for companies to select Industry 4.0 technologies goal-oriented. The described procedure was validated with SMEs.