Industry 4.0 Implementation: Novel Issues and Directions

Abstract

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is an emerging industrial paradigm yet to achieve its full potential. One research gap is understanding its unique implementation challenges. We highlight unattended issues in implementing I4.0 technologies by drawing on information systems implementation research. I4.0 is a weakly structured system, which requires users to discover then share affordances and later negotiate shared rules through joint regulation. This calls for different ways of implementing I4.0 when compared with earlier highly structured technologies such as MRP, which demanded user compliance. We develop a 2x2 framework of I4.0 implementation issues defined by (1) vertical or horizontal integration and (2) the capacity for the components of I4.0 systems to learn autonomously. We posit that these issues form a new frontier of implementation research in the next decade.