Analysis of the factors affecting the Industry 4.0 tendency with the structural equation model and an application

Abstract

Technology, the development of which has gained significant momentum recently, has caused critical innovations in the production sector. Having a lot of various components, Industry 4.0, also known as the fourth industrial revolution, has turned into a concept on which enterprises have started to concentrate their attention to adapt to difficult conditions of competition. Industry 4.0 represents a phenomenon, which has the potential to considerably influence the performance of businesses with a lot of superiorities, including its cost-effectiveness, high speed, effectiveness and quality, automated and communicating systems, and considerably simpler processes. Furthermore, businesses adapting to Industry 4.0 can keep up with the age, and they also have the possibility to increase their market shares under competitive conditions and improve current customer satisfaction. In the present paper, the criteria influencing the Industry 4.0 tendency were revealed, and the analysis of the impacts of the above-mentioned criteria on Industry 4.0 was performed using a structural equation model (SEM). In the model, nine criteria (factors) were utilized, including business models, products, and services, market and customer access, value chains and processes, IT (Information Technology) architecture, compliance, risk, security, organization and corporate culture, leadership, strategy, culture, management, IoT (Internet of things) data protection, processing, and team expertise, and data integration for analysis. Reliability values for all variables of the model were determined to be above 0.6. In addition, it was determined that all 9 criteria had a positive effect on Industry 4.0, 6 of which were significantly effective. The criterion with the most importance degree was determined as market and customer access. It is believed that this research may guide enterprises on Industry 4.0.