SAMI 2018 • IEEE 16th World Symposium on Applied Machine Intelligence and Informatics • February 7-10 • Košice, Herl’any,
Slovakia
Assessing Industry 4.0 Readiness of
Enterprises
Zoltán Rajnai, István Kocsis
Doctoral School on Safety and Security Sciences, Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary
rajnai.zoltan@bgk.uni-obuda.hu, kocsis.istvan@phd.uni-obuda.hu
Abstract – Industry 4.0, the digital transformation of
the industry, is enabled, and forced by the rapid
technology development. The fast changing
environment presents huge challenges for enterprises,
and economies.
Management of the enterprises must have a clear view
of their companies’ preparedness for this fourth
industrial revolution for making the appropriate
decisions to preserve or improve their competitiveness.
Industry 4.0 readiness assessments, and maturity
models can support the management at benchmarking,
and setting up a roadmap for the digital
transformation of their company.
I. INTRODUCTION
The digital transformation of the industry, known as
Industry 4.0, changes the world of manufacturing,
and their economic environment, including markets
completely. It is a topic of many scientific
discussions if this change should be considered as
the Fourth Industrial Revolution or not.
Independently of this question, the following
observations can be made. Changes are rapid, and
radical. Disruptive new technologies and business
models rearrange current value chains. Information
is transferred in a very short time globalizing
markets, resulting in a fierce competition, more than
ever before.
Historical experience shows, that fast
reorganizations of production factors cannot always
be followed by society, and by related structures.
There are going to be losers and winners in various
aspects, and dimensions: regions, countries,
branches, enterprises, professions, and people.
Competitiveness at enterprise level is a key factor of
an economy to be well positioned on the markets,
and in the value chains in a new, and rapidly
changing environment. It is a major interest of
governments to assess the fitness of the local
economy, and first of all of enterprises to assess their
readiness for Industry 4.0.
Assessing and predicting in the continuously, and
rapidly changing environment is impossible. The
phenomena facilitated by new enabling technologies
978-1-5386-4772-1/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
result in new processes, and change the rules of the
game.
II. INDUSTRY 4.0
The digital transformation of manufacturing
processes based on intelligent machines and devices
is new. Definitions or efforts for concluding a
definition of Industry 4.0 usually provide us with a
high-level conceptual overview of the idea or
phenomenon. Comprised from the definition of the
German Industry 4.0 Platform Steering Committee
from 2015, most important attributes of Industry 4.0
are as follows [1]:
• new level of organization and control of the
entire cross-enterprise value adding
network throughout the product lifecycle,
forming a real-time optimized, self-
organizing system
• the lifecycle includes: concept,
development, production, order, shipping,
recycling, including associated services
• it focuses on personalized customer wishes
• it can be optimized to various conditions,
like cost, resource usage, availability.
Technology foundations of industry 4.0 are ensured
by
• real-time availability of all relevant
information,
• capacity to determine an optimized process
at any time based on the information,
• integration of people, objects, and systems
into the value chain.
III. INDUSTRY 4.0 READINESS
Definitions of Industry 4.0 from various sources,
though embrace the idea at conceptual level, are not
detailed enough to make clear decisions, if a given
technology, a process or a project proposal “is
industry 4.0” or not.
Digitalization, and Industry 4.0 are widely
considered as an important current trend, according
to several survey, leaders of many enterprises have
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Z. Rajnai, I.Kocsis • Assessing Industry 4.0 Readiness of Enterprises
not heard about it [2]. A large share of companies
being aware of the concept at least, know also that
they need to adopt changes into company processes
[3], but don’t know how to start with introducing
industry 4.0, or how to get “industry 4.0-compliant”.
It is important to realize that digital transformation
of a company is not technology investment only. It
must be an overall business strategy based on the
commitment of the management of the company.
Then, based on the new business strategy, internal
and external business processes change. Going
digital is not a transient change, rather an evolution
through multiple steps involving technology and
organizational changes.
IV. ASSESSING INDUSTRY 4.0 READINESS
Industry 4.0 readiness assessments at company level
are based on self-assessment. Information is
collected mostly via internet surveys, sometimes via
phone interviews. Early surveys, as seen above,
target usually general information on awareness,
perceptions, attitudes, etc. Some of them investigate
more detailed information on enterprises,
manufacturing (decision making, smart
manufacturing technologies, data security, e.g.), and
branch specific data [4]. A similar approach can be
observed at international, [5] for the DACH1 region,
and at global level providing for more descriptive
information on phenomena [6].
Figure 1. The four dimensions of the Forrester digital maturity model [9]
1
DACH Region: of Germany, Austria, Switzerland
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Being already aware of the trend of digitalization, in
order for starting the process of a digital
transformation of the company, the management
must have a clear view of the current status, and a
strategic plan of what should be achieved: “Good
metrics aren’t just about raising money from VCs…
they’re about running the business in a way where
founders can know how – and why – certain things
are working (or not)….” – Jeff Jordan, Partner at
Andreessen Horowitz.
As the information demand increases, and more
complex readiness assessment models evolve
including more numeric readiness indicators, it is a
general approach to bundle these indicators into
thematic groups, usually called dimensions. The
values of the indicators are used to calculate so-
called digital readiness indexes. These complex
models can be used for assessing the digital
readiness level of companies, hence the digital
maturity model expression have been spread.
Depending on their main goals, various maturity
models have been developed. While some of them
use descriptive elements, other convert information
obtained from surveys directly to numeric scores.
Although the PwC Industry 4.0 survey of 2016
focuses mostly on the global outreach, and large
sample base, the PwC maturity model of Industry 4.0
capabilities is introduced [7]. It is based on seven
dimensions of digital capabilities embracing
business, products and services, integration of value
chain, data analytics, agile IT
architecture, compliance and
security, organization and
culture. Four maturity levels
are defined in each of the
dimensions: digital novice,
vertical integrator, horizontal
collaborator, digital
champion. The model is used
for setting a qualitative
assessment of the enterprise
to devise an action plan.
The Industry 4.0 maturity
model described in the
acatech study [8] focuses on
the development stages of the
company, as follows.
Levels of digitalization:
1. Computerization: using
standalone applications.
2. Connectivity: systems are
connected into a
 SAMI 2018 • IEEE 16th World Symposium on Applied Machine Intelligence and Informatics • February 7-10 • Košice, Herl’any, Slovakia

Figure 2. The four levels of the Forrester digital maturity assessment model [9] following the company on its
development in digitalization: skeptics, adopters, collaborators, differentiators.

Manufacturing Execution System (MES). 6. Adaptability: Continuous adaptation, optimized

Levels of Industry 4.0: decisions by IT systems.
3. Visibility: Events are “seen” by sensors. The maturity levels are determined by functional
4. Transparency: All relevant information is areas of the enterprise based on questionnaires for
available, and analyzed. business processes. The information is used to get
5. Predictive capacity: Future scenarios are the current status, and to determine next steps.
simulated, events are predicted.
The Forrester
digital maturity
model [9] grasps
the complexity,
and maturity of
the digital
transformation
of enterprises in
four dimensions
(see Figure 1):

Figure 3. The inner, and the outer circles show the structure of the Industry 4.0 readiness
modell of the Impus Foundation [1] composed of six dimensions, and of 18 associated
fields, which group their respective indicators.

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Z. Rajnai, I.Kocsis • Assessing Industry 4.0 Readiness of Enterprises
• Culture: company culture, vision, strategy,
leadership, education and training of
employees, innovation,
• Organization: customer orientation,
governance and execution of digital
strategy, HR, organizational model,
processes,
• Technology: technology roadmap,
development, investment driven by
customer and business value, flexibility,
• Insight: clear and quantifiable measurement
of digital success, using feed-back from the
customer.
Each of the dimensions of the assessment are
comprised of a set of questions. The answers are
provided as scores of these evaluation criteria
resulting in a final score or index. This vale can be
used for example for
• assessing digital readiness of the enterprise
on a numeric scale,
• benchmarking with respect to the statistics
of a larger sample,
• reveal strengths and weaknesses of the
enterprise at specific fields of company
functions in terms of digitalization.
The final scores of the assessment can be used, and
is getting a common approach in these kind of
models, to set up segments of companies sorting
them into categories of maturity levels.
Segmentation can be done by setting up ad-hoc
numeric ranges or based on characteristics of an
already present enterprise measurement base. The
Forrester model sets up four maturity levels based on
segmentation of their company base (see Figure 2):
skeptics, adopters, collaborators, differentiators. The
Figure 4. The six company maturity levels of the Impuls Industry 4.0 readiness assessment model [1]: 0:
Outsider, 1: Beginner, 2: Intermediate, 3: Experienced, 4: Expert, 5: Top performer. These readiness levels are
grouped finally into company types: Newcomers, Learners, and Leaders.
current maturity assessment of the company can be
used for planning a digital transformation road map
for the enterprise.
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The current Forrester model is a result of an
evolution of several years. This presents an example
that evaluation models should also change according
to the changing technology, business, and customer
environment.
The industry 4.0 readiness model of the Impuls
Foundation of VDMA (Association for mechanical
engineering, plant engineering, and information
technology) is built upon six dimensions: Strategy
and organization; Smart factory; Smart operations;
Smart products; Data-driven services; Employees.
These dimensions are decomposed into 18 fields,
which groups their respective indicators (see
figure 3.).
Based on the indicator values, a six-level Industry
4.0 readiness model of the companies has been
elaborated: 0: Outsider, 1: Beginner, 2: Intermediate,
3: Experienced, 4: Expert, 5: Top performer (see
figure 4.).
Readiness level evaluation of each company follows
these rules: in each of the six dimensions, the
company is ranked to the lowest readiness level of
the fields within that dimension. Then, the final
readiness score is calculated as a weighted average
of the readiness scores of the six dimensions. The
weight factors were determined by asking the
companies in the survey to score the importance of
each of the dimensions. The resulting weight factors
were: strategy and organization 25%; smart factory
14%; smart products 19%; data-driven services 14%;
smart operations 10%; employees 18%.
Finally, to summarize, and to conclude results easier,
these five readiness levels can be grouped into
company types: Newcomers, Learners, and Leaders.
 SAMI 2018 • IEEE 16th World Symposium on Applied Machine Intelligence and Informatics • February 7-10 • Košice, Herl’any, Slovakia
V. THE HUNGARIAN APPROACH
May 2016, the Hungarian Industry 4.0 National
Technology Platform (NTP) has been founded. One
of its first goals were the elaboration of an Industry
4.0 Industry Development Strategy proposal for the
Government. Following the international best
practices, to provide for background information for
the foundation of the strategy, the NTP launched an
online survey for assessing Industry 4.0 readiness of
Hungarian enterprises2.
As, neither the strategy proposal nor the results of the
online survey have been published officially yet, the
authors intended to provide for a methodology
overview.
Considering, that this survey is the first of its kind in
Hungary, its major goal was obtaining general
information or overview on the readiness level in the
country in two respects:
• company or micro level Industry 4.0
readiness of companies;
• overview of the Industry 4.0, and digital
readiness at national level
The Hungarian methodology follows roughly the
German practice. The rather detailed online
questionnaire composed of almost hundred
questions is built around the following topics [10]:
• The company: general, and structural
attributes, activities
• General questions on Industry 4.0, and its
application at the company
• The application of digital solutions at the
company (technology, finance, processes,
…)
• Influence of Industry 4.0 on the domestic
economy (Industry 4.0 at national level,
role of the government, infrastructure,
challenges, motivations, …)
Elaborating a methodology based on international
best practices makes the process faster, and helps
avoiding risks. However, having similar questions,
similar methodology, do not make results of online
surveys comparable. The information obtained by
the Hungarian survey have confirmed this
experience.
CONCLUSION
As the phenomenon of the intelligent digital
transformation of manufacturing is in its emerging
phase, there is no generally accepted, and established
methodology for assessing Industry 4.0 readiness of
enterprises. An overview of Industry 4.0 readiness
2
The author took part in the elaboration of the
survey questionnaire, and that of the strategy.
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assessments, and methods has been provided,
showing some examples in more detail.
Simple forms of Industry 4.0 assessments are
presented by data collections – mostly online,
partially by interviewing for obtaining and analyzing
statistical data.
More sophisticated approaches set up a readiness or
maturity model for assessing company capabilities in
the field. Data is collected usually by means of
online surveys. These models can be characterized
by their dimensions (single or multiple level
structure) grouping the survey scores or calculated
indicators. By defined evaluation methods one can
obtain an overall summary score or index to be used
directly for Industry 4.0 readiness assessment. Based
on this score, enterprises can be assigned to
segments forming specific readiness categories or
maturity levels.
The management of an enterprise can use the results
of an Industry 4.0 assessment as benchmarking
information, but more importantly support it at
elaborating a strategy, and a digitalization roadmap
for the company.
Industry 4.0 is known as a fast evolving field. The
evolution of the Forrester readiness model was an
example of the requirement for changing assessment
models according to the changing technology,
business, and societal environment. The authors
expect, that newer readiness assessment methods are
going to be developed, and intend to work on a
proposal for an Industry 4.0 maturity model.
REFERENCES
[1] Impuls: Industry 4.0 Readiness (Impuls-
Stiftung. Aachen, Cologne. 2015)
[2] Eisert, R.: Mittelständler verpassen die
Zukunftstrends (Industrie 4.0. 2014.
http://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/mittelstan
d/industrie-4-0-mittelstaendler-verpassen-
die-zukunftstrends/10004718.html. Last
accessed: 10.10.2017)
[3] Gfk Enigma: Umfrage in mittelständischen
Unternehmen zum Thema Digitalisierung –
Bedeutung für den Mittelstand (Study
ordered by DZ Bank. 2014.)
[4] Studie Industrie 4.0 – Eine
Standortbestimmung der Automobil- und
Fertigungsindustrie (MHP, Gesellschaft für
Management- und ITBeratung mbH. 2014.)
[5] CSC-Stuie „Industrie 4.0“ – Ländevergleich
DACH (CSC. 2015.)
[6] The Boston Consulting Group: Inside OPS –
Are your operations ready for a digital
revolution? (BCG. 2016.)
Z. Rajnai, I.Kocsis • Assessing Industry 4.0 Readiness of Enterprises

[7] PWC: Industry 4.0: Building the digital [9] Gill, M., VanBoskirk, S.: The Digital
enterprise. 2016 Global Industry 4.0 Survey. Maturity Model 4.0 (Forrester Inc. 2016.)
(PWC. 2016.) [10] The online questionnaire of the Hungarian
[8] Schuh, G. et al.: Industry 4.0 Maturity Index Industry 4.0 National technology Platform
(acatech, National Academy of Science and (Industry 4.0 NTP. 2017.
Engineering. 2017.) https://survey.sztaki.hu/index.php/178863?la
ng=hu . Last accessed: 10.08.2017)

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