Industry 4.0 HUB: A collaborative knowledge transfer platform for small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

Industry 4.0 brings opportunities for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but SMEs are lacking Industry 4.0 knowledge, and this might result in a challenge to support SMEs’ competitiveness and productivity. During recent years, the European Commission and some government initiatives have been fostering the transition toward Industry 4.0 for SMEs through the creation of Digital Innovation Hubs, the Plattform Industrie 4.0, and some other initiatives. Nonetheless, the authors consider that the lack of knowledge is still a risk toward Industry 4.0 transformation for SMEs. New ways to improve Industry 4.0 knowledge management and especially the knowledge transfer must be developed. When SMEs start the transition to Industry 4.0, first of all, they do not want to start from scratch, and secondly, it can be easy to get lost in the multitude of technologies and tools that are available in today’s market. There is a gap in which to provide a collaborative Industry 4.0 knowledge transfer platform or hub designed for SMEs. Therefore, this research aims to enhance Industry 4.0 knowledge transfer through the development of a collaborative, web-based knowledge transfer Industry 4.0 platform. The outcome of this research is a developed platform that will be referred to as Industry 4.0 HUB.