The document describes an Industry 4.0 assessment tool for manufacturers to evaluate their current position and maturity levels. The tool consists of a questionnaire that covers different assessment dimensions, including current products/services, customer access, value chains/processes, and IT architecture. It provides examples of questions to understand manufacturers' Industry 4.0 practices. The tool was used by a company called Semforex to assess its maturity levels and identify problems and solutions, such as implementing a web portal for online product measurements.

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Pankesh Patel
Getting Started For SMEs

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n Existing manufacturers may face difficulties of mapping Industry 4.0 concepts to
their business domains.
n An assessment tool
n A set of MCQs, covering different dimensions of a manufacturer
n Independent of specific technology
n A simple and intuitive way to understand customers needs
n Based on existing Industry 4.0 assessment models (not re-inventing the wheel)
Industry 4.0 – assessment tool

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n Current product & service portfolio:
n Physical product and/or the digital features/services offered by a manufacturer.
n Customer Access:
n Current practices to interact and understand its customers.
n Value chain & process:
n Current practices to manufacture products, manage manufacturing operations,
and supply chain.
n IT Architecture:
n Current infrastructure available to implement Industry 4.0 applications.
Industry 4.0 assessment tool dimensions
Supplier
Factory /
Manufacturing Unit
Customer

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Example: current product & service portfolio
A questionnaire to understand a manufacturer’s current position with respect to
manufacturer’s target
Industry 4.0 – Global Digital Operation Study PwC, https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/industry-4-0.html

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Example: value chain & process
IBM Manufacturing, https://www.ibm.com/industries/manufacturing/cognitive-manufacturing-outcomes
A questionnaire to understand a manufacturer’s current Industry 4.0 practices at
factory and to propose solutions accordingly at one-on-one meeting

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n Semforex :
n it is in business of manufacturing ballistics performance apparels to USA police officers.
n We gave the company representatives a questionnaire to allow for reflected
assessment of their current company’s position with respect to Industry 4.0 against
the company’s target maturity.
n Following the phase of the assessment procedure, the responses were analyzed to
calculate the maturity levels and to create the maturity report.
Industry 4.0 maturity assessment - Semforex

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n Maturity score:
n Semforex has started the digitization of his business model and operations and
the main focus is on getting the internal integration started.
n The portfolio is typically dominated by physical products and there is limited
integration within the vertical and horizontal value chains.
n Target score:
n The high value indicates that Semforex has strong ambitions to further investigate
in Industry 4.0.
Industry 4.0 maturity assessment - Semforex

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n Problem (Phase I)
n Paper-based form to collect data.
n Require to visit client sites to conduct measurements, resulting in travel costs
and staff labor charges.
n Solution – E-Tailoring
n A web portal supporting applications (critical to Semforex operations) while
creating backend infrastructure to which applications can be plugged.
n Applications that allows clients to enter their measurement data online.
n Once the measurements are submitted to the web portal and stored in the data
repository, Semforex can begin its customized apparel production process.
Semforex - Product Measurement Digitalization (Phase I)

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Questions?

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Contact…
Pankesh Patel, PhD
Senior Research Scientist,
Fraunhofer USA/ Center for Experimental Software Engineering (CESE),
College Park, Maryland, USA.
Mobile: +1 240-302-3609, Fax: 240 487 2960
Email: ppatel@fc-md.umd.edu / ppatel@cese.fraunhofer.org