Industry 4.0 technology implementation in manufacturing: a selection method and real case applications

The pressing necessity for digitalisation in industrial plants, driven by Industry 4.0 national initiatives and heightened global competition, underscores the urgency for companies to initiate digital transformation projects. Despite this urgency, the academic literature lacks comprehensive guidance on models specifically dedicated to the selection of digital technologies. This article addresses this gap by proposing a multi-criteria decision-making model, grounded in a methodological framework, for the systematic selection of digital technologies in the manufacturing sector. The proposed model combines fuzzy logic and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and incorporates a well-established classification of digital technologies. The model is able to select the single best candidate technology as well as the best candidate group of technologies that share the same purpose. In this way, the model tries to capture the interconnection element that is at the core of the digitalisation concept. To test its validity, the model was applied in two manufacturing companies operating in distinct production sectors. One of these companies was undergoing a digitalisation process in its plants, providing an additional basis for comparing the results of the proposed model.