Focused on their day to day, industrial SMEs tend to perceive the transition towards the 4.0 paradigm as far away, however it is more accessible than they suppose
Although the level of technological integration of Spanish companies is close to the European average according to the Digital Economy and Society Index – DESI – 2020 of the European Commission), the high levels of digitization have reached very few companies. It is necessary to underline that the low penetration of digitization corresponds above all to SMEs and occurs especially in the industrial field.
Industrial SMEs, therefore, are forced to invest in more technology, but also in changing their culture. There is an idea of urgency and need for SMEs to embark on the path towards industry 4.0 and deep digital transformation if they do not want to lose competitiveness and, above all, the new business opportunities that these processes can entail. In fact, the Plan to Promote the Digitization of SMEs 2021-2025 involves a set of public initiatives that promote the adoption of new technologies and the digitization of companies. This project is in line with the Recovery, transformation and resilience plan which provides that in the next three years, Spain will receive 140,000 million euros from the European Union while around 30% of these funds will be allocated to digital transformation.
Paradigm 4.0: bringing the distant closer
Due to the conception that many SMEs have about digitization, they tend to fall into numerous errors. One is to think that Industry 4.0 only implies having a website, social networks and storing data in the cloud. Industry 4.0 changes all the traditional aspects of the company: the production process, the products and the business models.
In the 4.0 era we are talking about technologies such as IoT, machine learning, robotics, artificial intelligence, among others, inaugurating new paradigms of flexibility, decentralization and interoperability that will allow new ways of managing production plants, making products and processes more efficient and optimized and reducing costs.
However, many industrial SMEs continue to have a distant perception of this new stage. In this sense, the errors that arise is that many of them assume that phase 4.0 is typical of larger or larger companies; Others see it as a bet based more on faith than on investment returns, which are not clear. In other cases, the lack of qualifications or adequate partners to travel this path paralyzes them.
It is important to make it clear that it is not easy to make tangible or anticipate the value that digitization and Industry 4.0 can bring. Gradually, with the incorporation of different uses of the information, it is possible to begin to notice the added value. Now, it is also true that many times this added value is associated with multiple interactions and complex processes or derives from the combination with other systems and operations.
We cannot affirm that there is a single value, but rather a series of differential and incremental contributions that derive, for example, from the availability of information in real time for faster decision-making or the efficient management of a warehouse or an improvement in operations. and workflows by virtue of robotization and the incorporation of sensors. The incorporation of this new paradigm also progressively leads to improvements in maintenance and an increase in the availability of machines thanks to predictive systems. Finally, standardization, automated data analysis and new processes and operations can see the light thanks to the incorporation of these new technologies.
But to unlock the true potential of the 4.0 world, SMEs have to be clear that a comprehensive combination of technologies is needed, since the individual development of any of them, independently and in isolation, is useless. It is also useless to lack a strategy. For example, it is useless to have data from a supply chain if it cannot be analyzed in a broader framework that gives meaning to the entire data management process.
SMEs, which are often focused on day-to-day emergencies, need a holistic vision and transversal knowledge. Many times, it is the technological partners and data experts who can provide them with the necessary support to identify and prioritize projects for the implementation of these technologies and, shortly, begin to move through the 4.0 process in a friendlier way, understanding that they are up to date. within reach of your hands and you just need a boost of management and knowledge.
