Industry 4.0 strategies and technological developments. An exploratory research from Italian manufacturing companies

This paper aims to investigate the Industry 4.0 technologies adopted in Italy and whether they are\r\nleveraged to pursue specific manufacturing strategies. A survey was conducted among Italian manufacturing\r\nplants with the collection of 200 usable questionnaires. To provide context to the statistical\r\nresults, respondents were also asked to discuss and provide suggestions about the difficulties and pitfalls\r\nencountered. The results show that while these technologies do not contribute to any significant\r\nimprovement in environmental sustainability, other strategies such as Servitization, Design-to-cost,\r\nSupply chain integration and Machinery-electronic equipment-and database integration, as well as\r\nLean strategy are enabled through the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. Our findings, accompanied\r\nwith the suggestions made by the Italian respondents, provide a useful insight for both researchers\r\nand practitioners as to what kind of benefits can be achieved through Industry 4.0 solutions and\r\nthe main areas of concern in their implementation.