Industry 4.0 revolution: state-of-the-art of the Italian manufacturing context

Higher global competition and more complex customer demands pushes manufacturers to provide valueadded products to the market in a faster and more reliable way. Companies can exploit the outstanding improvements in digital technologies whose adoption has brought to the so-called “Industry 4.0” (I4.0) revolution. Indeed, technologies such as Additive Manufacturing (AM), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Big Data & Advanced Analytics, Virtual & Augmented Reality and Cloud Manufacturing are transforming companies into smart enterprises characterized by the interconnection of processes and assets. Though the adoption of technologies and the benefits related to this new paradigm has been quite debated in the literature, it seems that no study has been conducted regarding the adoption level of Industry 4.0 principles in Italy. This article shows the results of an exploratory survey, in which a sample of 105 companies has been involved, covering the most important manufacturing sectors. The main objective of this study is the provision of a state-of-the-art review on how the Italian manufacturing enterprises are involved in the I4.0 journey. Except for IIoT and AM, our findings indicate that Italian manufacturing companies have a limited knowledge for I4.0 enabling technologies. The survey results also revealed that the medium and large companies, characterized by a high level of automation and computerization capability, tend to be much more incline to adopt I4.0 paradigm and related technologies. In the next future, by adopting the same methodology, we will extend the boundaries of the research involving companies of other countries, in order to highlight contingent differences compared to Italy.