Prerequisites for the Implementation of Industry 4.0 in Manufacturing SMEs

Technologies associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution have demonstrated a significant impact on the productivity and agility of manufacturing companies, enabling them to be more competitive. The implementation of Industry 4.0 allows these companies to be better equipped to meet mass customization requirements. In Quebec, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing industry don't typically adhere to this technological trend, which creates a performance gap between them and their competitors. One of the main reasons Quebec struggles to keep up is that its SMEs do not seem to be equipped to make this digital transformation. The purpose of this paper is to identify, within a literature review, the prerequisites necessary to prepare manufacturing SMEs for the digital revolution. This review highlights different authors' work to identify the most common prerequisites that are known. The results will help guide manufacturing SMEs to better prepare their readiness to implement Industry 4.0 and begin their digital transformation. With the results obtained from the research, combined with the design of experiments and a Monte Carlo simulation, it will be possible to validate the prerequisites. This will be done by implementing them in an aluminum product manufacturing SME in Quebec. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.