A Review of Industry 4.0 Assessment Instruments for Digital Transformation

Abstract

Nowadays, different Industry 4.0 technologies have been implemented into diverse industries. However, these implementations are not standardized across similar industries and countries. Consequently, companies are actively looking for assessment instruments—maturity models, roadmaps, frameworks, readiness assessments—to assist in their digital transformation, to determine their Industry 4.0 level, and to identify technologies and strategies that should be implemented in specific areas, thus developing a feasible implementation plan. A review is conducted following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Literature Reviews and Meta-Analyses) methodology to analyze the different research works on assessment instruments focused on Industry 4.0. A total of 538 articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, editorial material, reviews, and reports written in the English language were retrieved. Of these, 132 research papers were examined using a mixed analysis format to generate bibliometrics, and 36 articles were then deeply studied for a complete meta-analysis. The findings and insights of this meta-analysis led to a compilation and summary of dimensions, outcomes, enablers, and key components typically involved in Industry 4.0, which are comprehensively integrated to present the best practices for assessing Industry 4.0 and deploying a digital transformation that can impact productivity, flexibility, sustainability, quality, costs, and time.

Keywords

• Industry 4.0
• digital transformation
• assessment instruments
• readiness assessment
• maturity models
• smart factory