The Italian approach to Industry 4.0: policy approach and managerial implications in a SMEs environment

The Industry 4.0 Italian plan is the new attempt of the National Government in Italy to adopt a comprehensive industrial policy aimed to adapt the industrial sector to the new trajectories of manufacturing. A variety of policy plans and interventions have been recently developed in order to sustain these processes everywhere in Europe. . The 9 enabling technologies identified in the so called ‘Calenda plan’ (from the Italian ministry of economic development name, coordinated the plan writing) are not just a list of industrial technologies available, but are a chance for (re)create a new business model in the factory 4.0, but more and more in the ‘social environment’ 4.0 where the whole value chain in a business company need to be re-thought. An analysis of the potential impact of these policy frameworks has still to be implemented. This paper aims to disentangle the relationship between policies and the Italian manufacturing starting from an overview of the industrial policies in Italy and raising the main problems and contradictions potentially stemming out from the Italian plan.