Smart Production Planning and Control: Technology Readiness Assessment

There is a clearly identified need to support SMEs to be aligned with technology advances in the context of Industry 4.0 throughout the end-to-end engineering across the entire value chain. Thus, this study aims to adapt and utilize the Smart SME Technology Readiness Assessment (SSTRA) methodology to enable SMEs to gain available information and data to process it in a standardized manner to analyze the technology readiness to implement industry 4.0. The SSTRA framework and methodology is implemented in a real case study with a focus on the smart production planning & control phase. Also, the conceptual model for Smart production planning & control development is proposed and validated. Feedback shows how this method can be effective to implement throughout the worldwide smart SMEs development to support the strategic transition to Industry 4.0 era.