Industry’s 4.0 transformation process: how to start, where to aim, what to be aware of

Industry 4.0 has fused digitalisation with traditional industrial processes bridging the physical and virtual worlds and opening unimagined possibilities for 21st century business growth. Research is still evolving towards the development of frameworks linking Industry’s 4.0 enabling technologies to specific goals and to their impact on the manufacturers’ businesses. A systematic review of all peer-reviewed managerial research is performed to extract Industry’s 4.0 enabling technologies, barriers and goals. A framework linking technologies, barriers, and goals is then developed together with a web application based on its contents. The use of the framework is demonstrated through its application to two specific empirical case studies. The review shows that there are 9 classes of Industry’s 4.0 enabling technologies, whose different arrangements lead to the achievement of up to 15 business goals that can be thwarted by 21 barriers. The pursuit of these goals leads to three different destinations, i.e. three diverse digital transformations of the manufacturing firms. This paper provides a holistic framework that analyses the relationships among Industry’s 4.0 enabling technologies, barriers and goals. It appeals to managers who can use its contents along with the web application to derive recommendations and suggestions tailored to their Industry’s 4.0 journeys.