Factors Introducing Industry 4.0 to SMES

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to identify some of the factors that affect the introduction of Industry 4.0 elements to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The article is concerned with factors that can be impulsive for SMEs and factors that, on the contrary, are limiting for SMEs to integrate Industry 4.0 into the enterprises. These factors are the result of a short brainstorming with some employees of 72 selected SMEs for case studies. The analysis of 1018 Czech SMEs showed that the introduction of Industry 4.0 is related to the size of the enterprise. Fisher’s Factorial Test based on a four-fold contingency table tested the data. The majority of medium-sized enterprises consider introducing digitization and robotization elements in the next 5 years, while in the case of micro-enterprises it was less than a half of the enterprises of the sample. At the same time, the relation between the enterprises with a written strategy and enterprises planning to implement Industry 4.0 was demonstrated.