Technologies for SMEs in Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is introduced as fourth industrial revolution and is a collective term for technologies and concepts of the value chain organization. This leads to improved productivity and efficiency, better flexibility and agility, and increased profitability. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the economies in the world. They are a dynamic and growing sector in most economies around the world. To stay competitive, small and medium-sized enterprises must constantly improve the product development and production processes. The technologies within Industry 4.0 can support small and medium-sized enterprises to solve these issues. Therefore a great challenge in the future lies in the transfer of the Industry 4.0 technologies to small and medium-sized enterprises. At first this master thesis focuses on a literature review of various technologies in Industry 4.0. Then the differences between small and medium-sized enterprises and large enterprises are shown. Afterwards the advantages and disadvantages of small and medium-sized enterprises are elaborated. The core issue of this thesis is to find out which of the technologies in Industry 4.0 are suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises which are evaluated by their attributes and situation with the help of identified criteria.