Journal of Industrial Integration and Management

Vol. 5, No. 3 (2020) 365–391

.c World Scienti¯c Publishing Co.
#
DOI: 10.1142/S242486222050013X

Industry 4.0 in a Small Commodity-Based

Economy: A Vehicle for Stimulating Innovation

Graham S. King
University of West Indies
St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
graham.king@sta.uwi.edu

Jason R. Rameshwar
University of West Indies
St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
jrameshwar@gmail.com

Chanan S. Syan*
University of West Indies
St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
chanan.syan@sta.uwi.edu

Received 18 February 2020

Revised 18 April 2020
Accepted 13 May 2020
Published 22 August 2020

Abstract. Innovation is fundamental for companies to exploit changes in their environment and
maintain a competitive advantage. Access to information and the ability to quickly utilise available
resources are key enablers for in-company innovation. Both of these are elements associated with Industry
4.0, which can now be identi¯ed as a facilitator of innovation. The Industry 4.0 framework integrates
evolutionary advances in manufacturing, production technologies, information technology, Internet of
Things (IoT), distributed processing power, and visualization tools, which facilitate organizations to more
e®ectively create enhanced value propositions for their customers, encouraging innovation in processes and
products. Three local ¯rms are analyzed, and opportunities for innovation are clearly identi¯ed in the
process of transitioning to Industry 4.0 through recon¯gured value chains; the creation of a cluster to
facilitate the development of innovative cloud-based solutions; and product con¯gurator and an aug-
mented reality interactive display.

Keywords: Industry 4.0; innovation; commodity economy; cloud computing; cluster.

1. Introduction
In a historically prosperous energy economy, the manufacturing sector of Trinidad
and Tobago is becoming a key contributor to the country's gross domestic product
(GDP) \surpass[ing] Mining and Quarrying to become the largest contributor to
GDP in 2018" (Ministry of Finance, 2018, p. 23). While downstream oil and gas

* Corresponding author.

365
366 G. S. King, J. R. Rameshwar and C. S. Syan

processing industries are included in the government's de¯nition of manufacturing in

this statement, the reliance on manufacturing highlights the need to improve the
innovation and competitiveness in the sector that makes such a large contribution to
the national GDP. Innovation will strengthen and stabilize revenues in the sector,
especially in the modern world in which both local and global customers' changing
demands are satis¯ed by any entity in any part of the world. The 2019–2023 Trade
Policy focusses on \enhancing the competitiveness and diversi¯cation of the econ-
omy and the country's exports", with two of the Policy's Goals focussing on \non-
energy goods and services" and \high-value added goods and services" (Ministry of
Trade and Industry, 2019, p. 6).
Achievement of these goals is dependent upon innovation and technology (Min-
istry of Trade and Industry, 2019, p. 7). However, the Global Innovation Index 2017
and 2019 ranked Trinidad and Tobago 91 in both cases (out of 127 and 129 coun-
tries, respectively) (Cornell University, INSEAD and WIPO, 2017, 2019), and the
Innovation Sub-Pillar in the Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017 (Baller et al.,
2016) gave a rank of 106/138.
Therein lies the focus of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as other small commodity-
based economies: a need to improve innovation and competitiveness among its
manufacturing companies; to strengthen and stabilize revenues, especially in the
modern world in which both local and global customers' changing demands are
satis¯ed by any entity in any part of the world.
The diversity of the Trinidad and Tobago economy, in terms of the range of goods
and markets, steadily decreased over the past 20 years (Bahar and Matsuno, 2016),
but conditions to catalyze innovation and diversi¯cation are ¯nally now created. A
skills gap analysis in each manufacturing entity to determine workforce readiness in
skills such as problem-solving, innovativeness, creativity, and entrepreneurship and
an associated plan to develop those skills could enable the country to leapfrog into a
new phase of its economic development (Ministry of Planning and Development,
2017, p. 105). Thus, high-value added goods and services would be achieved through
innovative elements applied to value networks utilizing a skilled workforce.
A recent technology foresighting exercise in Trinidad and Tobago identi¯ed ICT
Services as an enabler of innovation (Policy Links IfM ECU, 2017). Of particular
interest here is the digitization of machines and digitalized interaction with
employees and customers and the interconnection of these elements. Vast volumes of
data are created through digitization e®orts and this is now becoming the compet-
itive battleground, with companies winning or losing through their ability to inno-
vatively acquire, analyze, and use data. The relationships between companies and
their customers, and with others in their value chain networks, are radically trans-
forming, and if a company can be innovative in using this new relational environ-
ment, it can gain a signi¯cant competitive edge. For example, integration of
information from separated networks, through the ICT framework, could enable a
manufacturing company to analyze its data to identify: uses for existing products in
other industries; new processes that improve the value of existing products and
 Industry 4.0 in a Small Commodity-Based Economy 367

services; or which new products could be created that can satisfy larger and more
diverse markets.
These initiatives of the foresighting exercise provide a basis for developing
economies to leverage the emerging technology to encourage and foster innovation
in, and the competitiveness of, their manufacturing companies. Therefore, this re-
search work addressed the question \What vehicle could stimulate the rapid and
aggressive innovation manufacturing in a developing economy?"

2. Innovation as a Focus
In his book Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practices and Principles Peter
Drucker noted the importance of \developing an innovative idea into a viable
business or service" and his statement is fundamental to the research question of
stimulating innovation as a mechanism to create value through businesses and
services. He simpli¯ed this idea by stating \systematic innovation: to the search for
and the exploitation of new opportunities for satisfying human wants and human
needs" (Drucker, 1985a, 1985b).
He identi¯ed three key elements as exploiting change, identifying opportunities,
and creating di®erent businesses or services. The ¯rst highlighted the need to rec-
ognize and to encourage change in order to promote innovation. The second element
illustrated having adequate systems to monitor and measure the presence of
opportunities as well as to quickly inform decision-makers in order to take advantage
of them. The last element outlined the importance of understanding that stability
and consistency would not ensure business success and that there must be change
within the system which will promote disruptive innovation (Christensen et al.,
2015). These elements are reinforced by the identi¯cation of the characteristics

Table 1. Seven sources for innovative opportunity (adapted from (Drucker, 1985a, pp. 35–129, 1985b,
pp. 68–72)).

Sources of change Focus area of change Description

Unexpected Changes within the business
Incongruities Changes within the business
Process need Changes within the business
Industry and Changes within the business
market needs
Demographics Changes outside the
enterprise or industry
Changes in perception Changes outside the
enterprise or industry
New knowledge Changes outside the
enterprise or industry
\Unexpected success, the unexpected failure,
the unexpected outside event"
\Incongruity-between reality as it actually is
and reality as it is assumed to be or as it
`ought to be"'
\Innovation based on process need"
\Changes in industry structure or market
structure that catch everyone unawares"
\Demographics (population changes)"
\Changes in perception, mood, and meaning"
\New knowledge, both scienti¯c and non-
scienti¯c"
368 G. S. King, J. R. Rameshwar and C. S. Syan

needed to drive innovation as \new product or service", \learn from projects that go
awry", \discernment", \attracting and retaining innovators", \willingness to
experiment", and \sharing passion" (Deschamps, 2005, pp. 31–32).
The process of innovation should be \purposeful" (Drucker, 1985a, pp. 29, 35,
1985b, p. 72) with a clearly outlined return of investment, speci¯c strategies needed
to implement the change, and the methodology required to manage the strategy
(Cooper and Edgett, 2010). Thus, a key element of innovation is the strategic ability
to ¯nd or create opportunities that have the potential to be exploited. Table 1
summarized Drucker's \seven sources for innovative opportunity".
An assessment of the contributions by cited authors (Drucker, 1985a, 1985b;
Deschamps, 2005; Cooper and Edgett, 2010; Christensen et al., 2015) revealed
speci¯c factors of innovation, as
. Strategic
. Exploitation of changes
. Identi¯cation of opportunities
. Creation of something new
. Recognizing and learning from failed innovations
. Passionate organizational culture for change and accepting risk

3. Industry 4.0 and Innovation

In the global landscape, Industry 4.0 (I4.0) has become a mechanism for rapid
change and innovation in manufacturing and many other businesses. Germany, by
extension, the EU, and China focus on I4.0 as an innovation tool (Balhar, 2017).
China Manufacturing 2025 incorporates I4.0 with a focus on prioritizing political
policy tools in the area of I4.0 innovation (Lin et al., 2017). The authors noted that
I4.0 integrates multiple aspects of business operations to improve the company's
processes, material usage, supply chains, and product lifecycle management.
They also identi¯ed speci¯c focus areas of manufacturing companies that create
innovation, as:
. \Higher value-added manufacturing"
. \Digitization, networking, and intelligentization"
. \Manufacturing with advanced technology"

This is supported by Müller et al. (2018) who made a clear association between I4.0
and a company's changing business model toward innovation.
The term \Industry 4.0" or \Industrie 4.0" ¯rst appeared in the Hannover Fair,
Germany, in 2011 (Qina et al., 2016; Sniderman et al., 2016; Vogel-Heuser and Hess,
2016). It is recognized as the next evolution of the industrial automation and in-
corporation of the accelerating developments in communication and ever-increasing
volumes of data and information available of the systems and devices. The German
Trade and Invest (GTAI) de¯ned it as \A paradigm shift made possible by
 Industry 4.0 in a Small Commodity-Based Economy 369

technological advances which constitute a reversal of conventional production pro-

cess logic. Simply put, this means that industrial production machinery no longer
simply `processes' the product, but that the product communicates with the ma-
chinery to tell it exactly what to do" (Sniderman et al., 2016, p. 4).
Although the de¯nition is straightforward, it does not provide a clear practical
implementation of the concept to existing and future organizations wanting to adopt
this new strategy. Currently, there are two key reference architectures: the Reference
Architecture Model Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet Reference Architecture.
Neither has been adequately evaluated for adoption into the manufacturing envi-
ronment and each is a®ected by the process to standardize technology and system
interoperability (Yli-Ojanperä et al., 2019). This goal of standardization is prob-
lematic given the inherent nature of Industry 4.0. It requires real-time access to
intelligent information from each connected element installed (at present and in the
future) within a large cyber-physical system (CPS) to integrate seamlessly through
co-ordination and task scheduling with other CPSs (Lu, 2017; Xu et al., 2018; Zhou
et al., 2018). This is supported by Baur and Wee (2015) who de¯ned I4.0 as \the
next phase in the digitization of the manufacturing sector".
This will generate Big Data and require data analytics, advanced AI algorithms,
and other emerging technologies to capture and convert data into intelligent infor-
mation (Lu, 2019; Xu and Duan, 2019; Zhang and Chen, 2020) that will aid in the
cohesion of disparate elements for interoperability.
This need to integrate physically disconnected systems across large distances is
solved using Cloud-based technologies in which singular elements with unique
identi¯ers parse their data to the Cloud through various network-connected systems
(Lihong Jiang et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2014; Fang et al., 2017; Xu et al., 2017). This
has the advantages of not being limited to physically connected devices via use of
wireless transceivers; distribution of data collection points which increase the volume
and variety of Big Data from many di®erent sources; and use of Cloud analytic and
AI tools to convert data into intelligent information. The authors outlined the in-
frastructure required to implement this data storage for each IoT device that pro-
duces high volume data, which forms the basis of the CPS environment.
An inherent problem of identifying and grouping data is due to its quality
and method of representation, in which linked values may be treated as separate
elements. However, Linked Semantic Modelling is a technique that solves this
issue and has been shown to be e®ective in Cloud-based manufacturing (Xie et al.,
2017).
Although Cloud systems are bene¯cial, they are limited by the quality of the
service providers operating the Cloud platform and the network connecting the
devices to the Cloud. Thus, Cloud quality service is a critical element (Zheng et al.,
2014a,b, 2017; Cai et al., 2018) within the realization of a functional I4.0 ecosystem.
Cloud technologies are applied to dissimilar entities such as manufacturing,
health, and land resource management (Wang et al., 2014; Fang et al., 2017; Xie
et al., 2017; Xu et al., 2017; Zhou et al., 2018), demonstrating the importance of the
370 G. S. King, J. R. Rameshwar and C. S. Syan

Cloud to facilitate the integration of information across physically separated entities

and from various industries, in addition to manufacturing.
A de¯ning element of I4.0 is that it enables the integration of value chains (both
horizontal and vertical) at the ¯rm level (Prause and Weigand, 2016, p. 104). Thus,
integration is a fundamental component of this new paradigm and involves infor-
mation as well as systems to be e®ective (Xu, 2020). Xu highlighted this growing
focus through the increased frequency of similarly themed articles and the devel-
opment of a special journal dedicated to it.
Analysis of authors' contribution to de¯ning I4.0 enabled the development of a
new de¯nition of I4.0 as \the evolutionary change in decentralised connected systems
to enable the intelligent integration of the horizontal and vertical value chains of an
organisation" (Rameshwar, 2017, p. 130; Rameshwar and King, 2018, p. 49) Table 2
summarized the authors' contribution to this new de¯nition.
I4.0 can create an environment that promotes the factors of innovation. Table 3
illustrated the mapping of the factors to the I4.0 key concepts, and Table 4
highlighted the speci¯c technologies (Rameshwar, 2017, pp. 20–21; Rameshwar and
King, 2018, p. 50, 2019, p. 13) that are linked to the I4.0 key concepts. These I4.0
enabling technologies were identi¯ed through the analysis of contributions by Zhan
et al. (2015); Bechtold et al. (2016); Geissbauer et al. (2016); Moustapha (2016); and
Sherwin (2016).
The use of speci¯c I4.0 enabling technologies together with the application of the
I4.0 key concepts creates innovation within the following company examples from
SAP, Rolls-Royce, Maserati, Siemens, Nike, Reebok, and Adidas.
(i) Deepening understanding of the customer through real-time communica-
tions — direct and immediate interactions allow the ¯rm to speci¯cally match
supply to customers' varying demand pro¯les and strengthen customer loyalty.
SAP Ag creates innovation solutions for their customers' production processes
by utilizing I4.0 (SAP News, 2013).
(ii) Enhancing the product o®ering — physical products blended with customized
services change the customer purchase from a piece of property to an experience
and a capability. Connected products facilitate manufacturers' real-time in-
teraction to enhance the customer values. Rolls-Royce, for instance, uses vast
quantities of real-time engine data streamed to its global operations center and
\has deliberately blurred the lines between making things and o®ering services"
(Britain's Lonely High-Flier (Rolls Royce), 2009) to transform its market
position.
(iii) Improving the product development process — Maserati achieves \rapid
innovation" by creating its \digital twin", which is a key element of the I4.0
system, using Siemens' Teamcenter PLM software (Waurzyniak, 2017).
(iv) Manufacturing process improvements — Siemens' semi-automated Amberg
plant enables a customer responsive system for order-to-delivery in 24 h, with a
quality of 9.99885% (Queiroz, 2016).
Table 2. De¯ning terms of Industry 4.0.
I4.0 key concepts De¯nition
Evolution A continuously changing \cyber-physical system" includes digital and
physical technological systems within the production environment
is needed to create value for the customer, process, and business.
Connected Real-time intra- and inter-system communications, which include pure
systems digital and \cyber physical" elements or production systems that
describe the interconnectedness between the physical and the
digital environment.
Decentralized Production elements (including information, production, and logistics)
systems that function while physically or digitally separated. This enables
(i) reliability and redundancy in the manufacturing process and (ii)
creation of independent production environments that can provide
customized products based upon real-time demand.
Intelligent Autonomy of the system (or components within it) such as individual
products controlling their own production with feedback within the
system. All production elements understand their roles,
communicate with each other, and co-ordinate to ful¯ll the
production demand.
Integration of Integration that enables e®ective and e±cient assimilation of
horizontal and production elements (physical and digital as well as business and
vertical value process) to satisfy variable demand pro¯les. This ensures that the
chains system creates value, for the customer and the business while
decreasing costs (capital, energy, and personnel).
Cited authors
VDI/VDE-Gesellschaft für Mess- und
Automatisierungstechnik (2015); KUKA
Aktiengesellschaft (2016); Prause and Weigand (2016);
Sherwin (2016); Sniderman et al. (2016)
Bagheri et al. (2015, p. 1622); Ramanathan (2015, p. 24);
VDI/VDE-Gesellschaft für Mess- und
Automatisierungstechnik (2015); Wernicke (2015, p. 12);
Geissbauer et al. (2016, p. 6); KUKA
Aktiengesellschaft (2016, p. 10); Roblek et al. (2016);
Sniderman et al. (2016); Vogel-Heuser and Hess (2016,
p. 411)
MacDougall (2014); Wernicke (2015)
Heng (2014, p. 5); Wernicke (2015, p. 13); KUKA
Aktiengesellschaft (2016, p. 7); Qina et al. (2016, p. 173)
CFE Media (2016, p. 38); Prause and Weigand (2016,
p. 104)
Industry 4.0 in a Small Commodity-Based Economy
371
372 G. S. King, J. R. Rameshwar and C. S. Syan

(v) Product level development — 3D printing for production transforms economies

of scale and production lead times into bespoke production for speci¯c customer
requirements that can be developed and tested as single entities thereby cre-
ating new products (Petrick and Simpson, 2013) as customized shoes manu-
factured using 3D print technology by Adidas, Nike, and Reebok (Cheng, 2018;
Lord, 2018; Carman, 2019).

Table 3. Factors of innovation mapped to I4.0 key concepts.

Factors of innovation Elements of the factors Mapped I4.0 key concepts

Strategic Clearly outlined return of investment, speci¯c Intelligent

strategies needed to implement the change,
and the methodology required to manage the
strategy
Exploitation of changes To recognize and to encourage change in order Intelligent, evolution
to promote innovation
Identi¯cation of Adequate systems to monitor and measure the Connected systems,
opportunities presence of opportunities as well as to integration of horizontal
quickly inform decision-makers in order to and vertical value chains
take advantage of them
Creation of something Understanding that stability and consistency Evolution and integration
new would not ensure business success and that of horizontal and vertical
there must be change within the system value chains
which will promote disruptive innovation
Recognizing and Unexpected and incongruous sources of change Intelligent, decentralized,
learning from failed connected systems
innovations
Passionate Demographics (population changes) as well as Intelligent
organizational changes in perception, mood, and meaning
culture for change
and accepting risk

These ¯ve scenarios identi¯ed the ultimate goal of a manufacturing company. They
have the ability to satisfy every potential customer in a short period. This concept of
mass customization, by which customers' needs are more precisely met but at a

Table 4. I4.0 enabling technologies linked to I4.0 key concepts.

I4.0 key concepts I4.0 enabling technologies

Intelligence Machine learning, autonomous robots, smart sensors

Connected systems Mobility technologies (mobile devices), augmented reality and wearables,
advanced human–machine interfaces, location detection technologies
Decentralization Cloud computing, data mining, Big Data analytics, and advanced algorithms
Integration System integration, Internet of Things (IoT) platforms, multilevel customer
interaction, and customer pro¯ling (community)
Evolution Additive manufacturing and 3-D printing, simulation, cybersecurity,
authentication, and fraud detection
 Industry 4.0 in a Small Commodity-Based Economy 373

similar cost-point to mass production, is facilitated in I4.0. Physical manufacturing

systems are integrated with the information systems, providing data °ows between
the external world and the internal production systems (Chandra and Kamrani,
2004). Customers can specify their wishes through a digital interface and their data
°ow straight to production machinery. Integration can extend beyond the walls of
the factory and encompass collaborations between the supply chain members to
achieve even more e®ective mass customization.
The speed, e±ciency, and e®ectiveness of this change are facilitated by use
of virtual environments that enable customers to accurately select product char-
acteristics that ¯t their speci¯c needs and are communicated with the manufacturing
enterprise and delivery systems to reduce the time to deliver. Product innovation is
visually communicated to prospected customers to strengthen a company's sus-
tainability within the growing and diverse global marketplace.
Trinidad and Tobago has a speci¯c weakness in its innovation system due to the
lack of collaboration between actors in the ecosystem (Guinet, 2014). Adopting I4.0
has the potential to integrate actors and strengthen this collaborative aspect of the
country's innovation ecosystem. This concept can be applied at the company level
by adopting and implementing the concepts and enabling technologies of Industry
4.0 to achieve similar innovative bene¯ts as SAP, Rolls-Royce, Maserati, Siemens,
Nike, Reebok, and Adidas.
It is important to recognize that there are four disruptions driving I4.0
(Rameshwar and King, 2018, p. 52) as it is a precursor for innovative environments:
. Massive rise in data volumes, computer power, and connectivity
. Analytics and business intelligence
. Human–machine interfaces
. Enhanced transfer of digital instructions to the real world, for instance, in
automation

4. Framework for Company-Level Industry 4.0 Implementation

Innovation is facilitated by I4.0 concepts (Table 3) and I4.0 enabling technologies
(Table 4) facilitate the changes with the customer, within the process, and at the
business level. Thus, connected systems are not just those within the ¯rm, but also to
its suppliers and customers. Bene¯ts are yielded to the ¯rm, its process, and its
customers. I4.0 enables the creation of new experiences of the product or service for
the customer, new e±ciency in the process, and new models for the business.
The I4.0 approach achieved innovative solutions by creating more e®ective links
between the customer, the business, and the process (Fig. 1). The thematic bene¯ts
and relationships between the customer, process, and business (Rameshwar, 2017, p.
35; Rameshwar and King, 2018, p. 51, 2019, p. 14) are refocussed on those that
directly a®ect innovation (Fig. 1) and are based on the evaluation of the factors of
innovation.
374 G. S. King, J. R. Rameshwar and C. S. Syan

Customisation Efficiency
Customer Process Business

Innovation Innovation Innovation

Information Information Information
Optimisation Improvement
Value Creation Value Creation
Improvement New Business
New Services

Fig. 1. Thematic representation of Industry 4.0 innovation elements and the relationships between the
customer, process, and business.

Thus, as illustrated in Fig. 1, information is a critical component in developing an

innovative environment and used to initiate the factors of innovation with the I4.0
key concepts. Therefore, an assessment of each company's position in terms of the
I4.0 key concepts is an important step in the framework, which is followed by the
identi¯cation and development of mechanisms that enable information to be
extracted from as well as transmitted to each of the customer, process, and business.

5. Methodology
The focus of this paper is on improving the innovation elements in Trinidad and
Tobago manufacturing companies by answering the question: What vehicle could
stimulate the rapid and aggressive innovation in a developing economy?
To this end, ¯ve local companies have been evaluated for the speci¯c I4.0 factors
that are linked to stimulating innovation, selected based upon the following criteria
(Rameshwar, 2017, p. 39; Rameshwar and King, 2019, p. 15): registered and oper-
ating as a business in Trinidad and Tobago; produces manufactured goods with at
least some local sales base; some potential for customization; and willingness to
participate in the study. The companies selected were StickCom, PanelCom, Soft-
Com, MetalCom, and ClothCom (generic names assigned to these companies for
con¯dentiality).
The study was conducted in three key stages: (1) development of a qualitative
open-ended semi-structured questionnaire and, since innovation is strategic in na-
ture, its administration to C-level executives at each company (Syan and Ramoutar,
2008, 2014); (2) a plant tour to observe current manufacturing technologies;
(3) analysis of company feedback and assessment of its infrastructure; and
(4) macro-analysis of the company's value chain network for driving innovation.
The framework for the questionnaire is illustrated in Table 5. This instrument
was deployed to assess the maturity of elements of I4.0 on a company level that
 Industry 4.0 in a Small Commodity-Based Economy 375

Table 5. Framework for company-level I4.0 innovation stimulation.

I4.0 key
concepts Linked factors of innovation Sample assessment instrument questions

Evolution Exploitation of changes; Q4–Q6: Assess the ¯rm's ability to recognize,

creation of something new
Connected Identi¯cation of opportunities;
systems recognizing and learning
from failed innovations
Decentralized Recognizing and learning from
systems failed innovations
Intelligent Strategic; exploitation of
changes; recognizing and
learning from failed
innovations; passionate
organizational culture for
change and accepting risk
Integration of Identi¯cation of opportunities;
horizontal and creation of something new
vertical value
chains
evaluate, and adopt new technologies and
products that provide bene¯ts to their production
and business operations.
Q9: Assess the ¯rm's ability to create a digital
production environment as well as utilize its
bene¯ts.
Q11–Q12: Assess communication and collaboration
between the manufacturer and their suppliers and
customers
Q15: Assess the manufacturer's ability to recognize
problems with their suppliers and their ability to
switch to an alternate supplier.
Q21: Assess the ¯rm's current and future investment
in technologies that enable the transition to I4.0.
Q16–Q18: Assess the safety and security of data of
the customer, business and process as well as
identifying existing contingencies for losses and
how the production system will be a®ected.
Q8: Assess the ¯rm's ability to identify the value
proposition for the customer that returns value to
the company.
Q10, Q13: Assess the ¯rm's ability to customize
orders and its pricing strategy.
Q14: Assess vertical and horizontal value chains that
the organization can identify that are able to add
value to their existing systems.

Source: Abstracted from Rameshwar (2017) and Rameshwar and King (2018, 2019, p. 16).

would be analyzed to identify and develop recommended solutions that implement

I4.0 concepts, which facilitate opportunities for innovation.

6. Results
The ¯ve local companies were evaluated to understand their current level of readi-
ness in the I4.0 framework. The companies were identi¯ed to have the potential to
customize products. Two companies were found to lack the fundamentals and in-
terest in I4.0, which prevent deployment in the short-to-medium term. Three had
potential for I4.0 and are reported here: StickCom, PanelCom, and SoftCom.
StickCom produces labels for a variety of products and operates in the Business-
to-Business (B2B) segment. PanelCom focusses on electrical components and elec-
trical panels for both the B2B and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) market segments.
SoftCom develops software applications as well as Cloud-based systems that enable
Table 6. Key responses from companies to the structured interview.
376
Company StickCom PanelCom SoftCom

Year started 1978 1984 1997

Products Labels Electrical panels Software
Company's Credibility, reliability, knowledge High functional speci¯cation, quality, Customized packaged o®ers, bene¯ts of subscription-
understanding of of processes, sales forecasting delivery, °exibility, inventory based software and services, ability to use free
value sought by management, short lead times beta versions of products
customer
Value returned to Strengthened relationships to Increased pro¯tability margins Loyalty, growth, and pro¯t
company ensure customer longevity and
new client referrals
Order customization Yes Yes Yes
Pricing strategy Dynamic customer-tailored Dynamic customer-tailored dependent Fixed and dynamic customer-tailored pricing
dependent upon relationship upon design features
Vertical value chain Integration will add value, focus on Integration will add value, focus on closing Integration exists utilizing the cloud platform and
supplier and customer all gaps adds value
G. S. King, J. R. Rameshwar and C. S. Syan

Horizontal value Integration will add value, provides Integration will add value, for example, Integration will add value, for example, revenue
chain signage, banners, advertising ¯re hose cabinets are a potential could be generated from IP integration by third
adjacent product party
Industry 4.0 Labor, culture Communication and data, change None
transition management
challenges
Technology Cloud computing, cybersecurity, Smart sensors, location detection, data Machine learning, cloud computing, cybersecurity,
investment IoT platform, smart sensors, mining, autonomous robots, IoT platform, smart sensors, location detection,
location detection, data mining, simulation, mobile devices, systems data mining, augmented reality and wearables,
simulation, mobile devices, big integration autonomous robots, simulation, advanced HMI,
data, systems integration, mobile devices, big data, systems integration,
multilevel customer interaction, multilevel customer interaction, and pro¯ling
and pro¯ling
Industry 4.0 Yes, progressing toward it, focus Investment in aspects that create value in Yes, currently involved in aspects based upon cloud
investment on bene¯t to customer, position the vertical and horizontal chains platform methodology
in early stage in customer value
development

Source: Abstracted from Rameshwar (2017).

 Industry 4.0 in a Small Commodity-Based Economy 377

B2B customers to satisfy speci¯c requirements for their operations. Table 6 outlined
a summary of the key responses of the focussed companies.
All the companies demonstrated potential for deploying elements of I4.0 imme-
diately, with associated bene¯ts, although a comprehensive deployment will require
a long-term strategic approach. PanelCom deploys a °exible manufacturing system
for electrical components but without the I4.0 elements the system is unable to
achieve its full potential. SoftCom already has important elements of I4.0 in its
business operations and has the potential for broader application.

7. Analysis
The results were analyzed with a focus on the I4.0 key concepts of evolution, con-
nected systems, decentralized, intelligent, and integration of value chains (Table 5)
and illustrated in Fig. 3. The relative strength of each company, in the I4.0 key
concepts, highlighted the criticality of the infrastructure for improving the speci¯c
I4.0 key concept and the linked factors of innovation (Table 5).
The relative levels of I4.0 key concepts of each company were made by examining
their responses to determine which company(s) would have a stronger contribution
or ability to achieve a speci¯c concept. The age of the company and the type of
product did not directly in°uence the potential to achieve a concept. At the com-
pany level, the innovation performance can be a®ected by the ¯rm size, its age, and
the technological investment (Yildiz et al., 2013, p. 590); however, the authors'
research revealed that only technological investment a®ects innovation performance.
However, age and product type have the ability to a®ect technology investment and
market share through product innovativeness (Pitrchart et al., 2018, p. 1481). The
development of the value networks and identi¯cation of potential improvements as
well as recommended solutions were re°ected by the type of answers provided during
the interview.
Information becomes the driving force for innovation. It is generated at the
customer, process, and business (Fig. 1) and must be shared among the entities to
translate into innovative products and services (that continually satisfy customer's
needs).
Information is created from user's feedback and preferences on quality and per-
formance characteristics among many disconnected devices (clothes, food, mobile
devices, transportation systems, personalized services, for example). Connecting
these systems using a decentralized framework enables the user data to be acquired
cleaned, analyzed, and shared among dependent process and business stakeholders.
This information will be modi¯ed to provide intelligence throughout the vertical and
horizontal value chains to drive improvements that will satisfy the customer's desire.
The subsequent innovative practical changes to the product and/or service are
achieved through evolutionary changes in system technologies and operations.
Although SoftCom is a service, not a manufacturing, company, its cloud-based
computing business model caused it to achieve the highest relative positions in the
378 G. S. King, J. R. Rameshwar and C. S. Syan

key I4.0 concepts. However, Fig. 3 also highlighted the improvements needed by the
other two companies (PanelCom and StickCom) to fully transition into an I4.0
system.
Each company identi¯ed speci¯c tools that it perceives could aid in the transition
toward I4.0 (Fig. 2). Analysis of their results revealed that augmented reality and
machine learning were not selected by the manufacturing companies, pointing to a
lack of awareness of the power of the technologies in developing innovative products
and services.
It was revealed that additive manufacturing was of little relevance to the com-
panies, except to provide customers with a visual and tactile representation of the
proposed product, rather than a completed customized manufactured solution. This
was due to the additional investments required for higher quality additive systems
(as those used by Adidas, Nike, and Reebok). Thus, there was a concern that the

LocaƟon detecƟon technologies

MulƟlevel customer interacƟon and profiling

Advanced HMI

Smart sensors

AddiƟve manufacturing

SimulaƟon

IoT plaƞorms

System integraƟon

Autonomous robots

Cybersecurity

Big Data analyƟcs

Augmented reality and wearables

Cloud compuƟng

Mobile devices

Data mining

Machine learning

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

SoŌCom PanelCom SƟckCom

Source: Abstracted from Rameshwar (2017, p. 90).

Fig. 2. The importance of current and future investments in technologies.

 Industry 4.0 in a Small Commodity-Based Economy 379

Source: Abstracted from Rameshwar (2017, p. 97) and Rameshwar and King (2018, p. 53).

Fig. 3. Assessment of the case study companies in adopting the key concepts of Industry 4.0.

costs to create innovative solutions may not be justi¯ed by an increase in pro¯t or

market share.
StickCom indicated an investment in cybersecurity since their Enterprise Re-
source and Planning system serves to integrate them with their suppliers and cus-
tomers. Although not directly an innovative solution, it will enable the I4.0 key
concepts of connected systems and integration of value chains. This would facilitate
innovate factors of \identi¯cation of opportunities; recognising and learning from
failed innovations; creation of something new".
The companies identi¯ed potential to inject innovative solutions through minor
modi¯cations in their extended value chain. StickCom can add greater value to its
customer, a bottled water manufacturer, by providing design services to support its
label product. New customers and new products could result from this value-chain
integration. SoftCom created a new source of revenue through horizontal integration

XN Value Networks Vertical Integration Horizontal Integration

Technology Technology

Levels of Technology Colour scheme

High Existing Systems
Medium Proposed Systems
Low

Source: Rameshwar (2017, p. 108)

Fig. 4. Key for value chain network diagrams.

380 G. S. King, J. R. Rameshwar and C. S. Syan

Internal Ecosystem External Ecosystem

Horizontal Non-Competitive Manufacturers

Primary Business System System (A, B, C)
Potential Horizontal
Commonality

B2C C1 C2 C3 CH CA CB CC

B2B B1 B2 B3 BH BA BB BC

Final Product P1 P2 P3 PH PA PB PC

WIP
Design & W1 W2 W3 WH WA WB WC
Manufacturing

Raw Materials/
Primary R1 R2 R3 RH RA RB RC
Products

Supplier S1 S2 S3 SH SA SB SC

Source: Rameshwar (2017, p. 109).

Fig. 5. Existing and proposed integrations between value networks of StickCom.

with a non-competitive company, while enabling the latter to create an innovative

product and service for their existing customer base.
The practical movement toward full I4.0 implementation is needed in order for
StickCom and PanelCom to achieve the full innovative bene¯ts of the I4.0 frame-
work. Their current I4.0 positions, as highlighted in the assessment of their adoption
of key I4.0 concepts (Fig. 3), demonstrated a need to strengthen the integration of
value chains, as one of the fundamental changes to become I4.0 ready.
The following value chain analysis was assessed based on the readiness of the
companies for I4.0 and how each could proceed to implement I4.0 more deeply. As a
direct result, innovation will be stimulated (as an output).
A value chain network model can be used to show the elements of the vertical and
horizontal value networks in one graphical representation. These can be complex,
with many linkages between them — for instance, multiple customers of one dis-
tributor, or alternate suppliers used in emergencies. In this analysis, a simpli¯ed
 Industry 4.0 in a Small Commodity-Based Economy 381

Internal Ecosystem External Ecosystem

Horizontal Non-Competitive Manufacturers

Primary Business System System (A, B, C)
Potential Horizontal
Commonality

B2C C1 C2 C3 CH CA CB CC

B2B B1 B2 B3 BH BA BB BC

Final Product P1 P2 P3 PH PA PB PC

WIP
Design & W1 W2 W3 WH WA WB WC
Manufacturing

Raw Materials/
Primary R1 R2 R3 RA RB RC
Products

Supplier S1 S2 S3 SA SB SC

Source: Rameshwar (2017, p. 113).

Fig. 6. Existing and proposed integrations between value networks of PanelCom.

version of the value chain network highlights opportunities for value chain innova-
tions that can be achieved through the deployment of I4.0.
Figures 5–7 provided an overview of the current and proposed future value chain
integrations based on the assessments of I4.0 readiness (key shown in Fig. 4). The
future changes (in red) represented the connections made between speci¯c value
networks and are based on the ¯rms becoming I4.0 compliant. Table 7 summarized
the identi¯cation of weakened areas within each value system and the innovative
solutions that would strengthen the integration vertically and horizontally, to satisfy
the I4.0 key concept.
Potential innovation opportunities arise when I4.0 allows for the recon¯guration
of value chains and especially new and enhanced connectivity between its elements.
Identi¯ed opportunities for the three case companies are outlined in Table 4
The assessment of the ¯rms identi¯ed a set of systems (technologies and training)
that would accelerate the migration to I4.0 to take advantage of the innovation that
it stimulates. The proposed technologies were based upon the following criteria and
382 G. S. King, J. R. Rameshwar and C. S. Syan

Internal Ecosystem External Ecosystem

Horizontal Non-Competitive Manufacturers

Primary Business System System (A, B, C)
Potential Horizontal
Commonality

B2C C1 C2 C3 CA CB CC

B2B B1 B3 BA BB BC

Final Product P1 P2 P3 PA PB PC

WIP
Design & W1 W2 W3 WA WB WC
Manufacturing

Raw Materials/
Primary R1 R2 R3 RA RB RC
Products

Supplier S1 S2 S3 SA SB SC

Source: Rameshwar (2017, p. 120).

Fig. 7. Existing and proposed integrations between value networks of SoftCom.

would enable StickCom and PanelCom to evolve toward full deployment of I4.0
(Rameshwar, 2017; Rameshwar and King, 2018):
. Lowest cost (when compared with the other implementation technologies)
. Shortest timeframe required to utilize the system
. Infrastructure available to install the equipment
. Direct and immediate impact that adds value
. Mitigation of common issues among the companies such as the current lack of
horizontal integration, existing technology that limits the ability to vertically
integrate, and lack of decentralization

8. Innovative Recommendations
Based on the value chain analysis (Figs. 5–7 and Table 7) and the design limitations
identi¯ed previously, the following innovative recommendations were identi¯ed and
proposed to the respective companies.
Table 7. Value networks innovation opportunities.
Company StickCom
Diagram Fig. 5
Current state value Medium to high levels of vertically
chain integrated technologies from raw
materials and primary products to
the ¯nal product
Low vertical levels of integration
between the suppliers and the
company and between the
customers
Innovative future Increased data transparency and real-
state value chain time sharing of information
between all of their value
networks — increase levels of
°exibility to changing customer
demands and requirements without
incurring losses
Practical example Real-time analysis of ERP data and
customer pro¯ling through data
mining facilitated by cloud
computing and accessed on mobile
technologies
Source: Abstracted from Rameshwar (2017).
PanelCom SoftCom
Fig. 6 Fig. 7
Low levels of technology vertically integrating them with Highest level of integration of these
their suppliers and B2B customers companies within their internal
High levels of vertical integration in areas within their ecosystem
manufacturing environment Enabled access, visibility, and analysis
Use of varying degrees of technologies between the raw throughout their system
materials, production system, and ¯nal product value
networks for di®erent products
Increased vertical integration throughout the primary New product development through
business system enabling increased °exibility in response further horizontal integration with
to customer demands and requirements new non-competitive companies
Horizontal integrations along the production system create
new value and reduce losses — improved communication
and co-ordination of resources — create horizontal
system to develop new products from existing raw
materials and machinery to generate new B2B and B2C
customers
Horizontal linkages to non-competitive manufacturers
(within the value networks of WIP and ¯nal product) —
increase utilization of resources to provide an outsourced
solution for the non-competitive manufacturers
Create a cluster — share knowledge and technology Cluster companies require access to
Improve competitive advantage of the Trinidad and Tobago uniquely customized cloud platform
manufacturers solutions and products
Industry 4.0 in a Small Commodity-Based Economy
383
384 G. S. King, J. R. Rameshwar and C. S. Syan

Multilevel customer interaction and customer pro¯ling: StickCom has innovation

opportunities yielded from an improved understanding of its customers through the
data mining and customer pro¯ling features of the Cloud platform technology. The
value of customer relationship innovation depends on using a multilevel customer
interaction. StickCom currently has a single type of interaction with its customer.
With the recommendation, its interaction with the customer and data about the
customer will be through many more channels. Thus, data on the use of its products
may be obtained by mining social media or by tracking product placement. By
gathering enriched customer data, the service o®ered to its customers can be en-
hanced, providing more value, a deepened relationship (of critical importance to the
company) and more pro¯t to StickCom. The use of other I4.0 enabling technologies
as advanced HMI and mobile devices would facilitate easier and faster access to
customer and plant information by the workforce in order to provide valuable
feedback for decision-making and customer interaction.
System integration: This approach is dependent on the connectivity and inte-
gration of all elements within the manufacturing environment to realize its full
potential and would result in a process innovation. Simulation of the plant's
equipment in a Cloud platform creates opportunity to add more value and details in
their estimates of the time and cost of a bespoke design to the customer in real time.
It would also allow for enhanced collaborative electrical system design earlier in the
lifecycle of a customer's project, in which PanelCom could optimize the customers'
construction designs with innovative ideas. This would create a digital twin of their
manufacturing and production environment that would enable them to improve the
results of prediction (as well as enabling testing of alternate resource and produc-
tivity conditions) by feeding data into the digitally twinned plant and analyzing the
outputs. Development of this virtual process would complement existing virtual
products and open the possibility for the use of augmented reality to help train and
instruct operators on the shop °oor in the requirements for each order. Since
PanelCom uses non-English speaking operators to o®set labor inconsistencies and
unplanned spikes in demand, this will create an innovative solution that reduces
training delays and quality errors (caused by the use of untrained intermittent
labor). The new platform would add considerable value to existing trained workforce
to improve manufacturing throughput and help to error-proof its operations.
Based on the recommended solutions of multilevel customer interaction and
customer pro¯ling and the system integration, two speci¯c innovative products were
identi¯ed for evaluation by each company. A product con¯gurator would improve
the customer interface and an augmented reality system to enhance the operator's
performance. SoftCom would provide the required Cloud platform development and
support for each product. This would be a new innovative product o®ering for the
software company and open a new customer base.
Each solution satis¯ed the I4.0 key concepts and thus the factors of innovation
and facilitated the acquisition and transmission of information between the cus-
tomer, process, and business.
 Industry 4.0 in a Small Commodity-Based Economy 385

Discussions held between the three companies, StickCom, PanelCom, and Soft-
Com, identi¯ed opportunities for collaboration of these non-competitive companies
around the I4.0 enabling technologies, through the formation of a cluster. Utilizing a
non-competitive cluster approach shares both risk and cost of development and
implementation, without creating con°icts among competing interests of similar
products or markets. Management of the change initiated in each in the companies
can bene¯t from mutual learning. This would satisfy the following innovation
factors:
. Identi¯cation of opportunities
. Creation of something new
. Recognizing and learning from failed innovations

A summary of the proposed new product solutions is provided below.

The product con¯gurator (Fig. 8) concept is that a customer can de¯ne the
product to have manufactured by PanelCom or printed by StickCom. The customer
would receive immediate indicative estimates of cost and delivery time. The con-
¯gurable design parameters are within constraints of the production environment
and elements of the value network. System integration allows checking of raw ma-
terial stocks and analysis of how the order would ¯t into existing and future pro-
duction schedules. The product con¯gurator is a collection of nested hierarchy of
data for each product family. The data are continuously updated based on the
linkages to other data repositories in the value network.
Augmented reality for operator interface (Fig. 9) will utilize existing engineering
drawings of WIP and ¯nished products, in the form of vision-friendly block dia-
grams, to provide instructions (correct part, orientation, and placement) and
monitor the actual products being assembled. Assembly performance and accuracy
would be tracked using a smart camera, and the images are overlaid on the required

Product
Configurator

Product Product Product Product

Family Family Family Family
A B Z “New”

SpecificaƟons SpecificaƟons SpecificaƟons SpecificaƟons

Features Features Features Features

Costs Costs Costs Costs

Customer interface with product configurator “New” product family

• Cloud based plaƞorm • Created by manufacturer
• Via web-based apps (smartphone, tablet, etc) • Created by mixing components of other families
• Rules based

Fig. 8. Product con¯gurator concept.

386 G. S. King, J. R. Rameshwar and C. S. Syan

Fig. 9. Augmented reality operator interface concept.

assembly pattern. An interactive display system will guide the worker in the correct
steps and verify that parts and assembly process are correct. This information would
be curated and accessed through the SoftCom-developed Cloud platform. This
platform would facilitate faster turnaround of customer-designed products as the
operator can rely upon the interactive instructions to accurately build new products.

9. Conclusion
Lessons can be learnt from the identi¯ed selection of I4.0 enabling technologies by
the subject ¯rms. The lack of current and planned investment in wearables and
augmented reality was related to the unidenti¯ed returns of investment. These
technologies were recommended for use in an innovative application (AR Operator
Interface) for all three ¯rms. As such, the following needs to be strengthened in the
journey toward implementation of I4.0:
(1) Awareness of the technologies in the I4.0 toolset,
(2) Value mapping,
(3) Identi¯cation of the value provided by the technologies and matching it with the
values needed within the organizations for enhanced competitiveness,
(4) Implementation of cyber-physical technologies that can ¯ll opportunity gaps in
the value chains of the ¯rms and drive their ability to develop innovative pro-
ducts, solutions, and services at various levels, thus creating new value.
 Industry 4.0 in a Small Commodity-Based Economy 387

This research work investigated the factors that would stimulate innovation in an
economy in which the innovation ecosystem is weak. A linkage between Industry 4.0
key concepts and factors of innovation was identi¯ed. Analysis of ¯ve local com-
panies revealed that three of them have some of the prerequisite qualities to make
I4.0 implementation feasible, thus improving their ability to innovate. Two inno-
vative recommendations were proposed to the case companies. However, further
analysis of the returns of investment was required to compare with the implemen-
tation requirements of cost, time, and disruption to existing systems, which are real
barriers that each entity must overcome.
The contributions from SoftCom, PanelCom, and StickCom explored whether
rapid and aggressive implementation of the I4.0 philosophy and technologies
in Trinidad and Tobago could signi¯cantly stimulate innovation in this small
commodity-based economy. This demonstrated that innovative solutions are feasible
using an I4.0 focussed approach.
Innovation stimulated by I4.0 comes not only through the creation of new pro-
ducts, services, and processes within the walls of an organisation, but also in the new
forms of relationships in value chain networks in which organisations operate. The
potential for three non-competitive companies to collaborate around their enthusi-
asm to implement I4.0 in a small commodity-based economy was based upon their
uno±cial agreement to form a cluster group. This framework can be expanded to the
national level to catalyze a sustainably innovative culture.
The analysis of the existing operations of StickCom, PanelCom, and SoftCom
demonstrated that the I4.0 framework created opportunities through gaps identi¯ed
in the horizontal and vertical value chains. They are facilitated through the use of
I4.0 enabling technologies such as multilevel customer interaction and customer
pro¯ling, system integration, cloud platform, mobile devices, data mining, aug-
mented reality, simulation and advanced HMI. Innovative systems as a product
con¯gurator and an augmented reality operator interface are the types of new I4.0
developed services, product o®erings, and operational solutions that can be deployed
in Trinidad and Tobago.
It is acknowledged that a direct result of becoming innovative is the strength-
ening of each company's competitive advantage, giving them access to new global
markets and increasing their export revenue. Innovation will now become an in-
valuable resource.

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