Evaluating Industry 4.0 investments: Beyond the old wine in new bottles
Industry 4.0 technologies significantly impact business models, competitive strategies and the configuration of production systems. The evaluation of the economic and financial impacts is problematic since these technologies are complex and heterogeneous. Furthermore, these technologies can be combined in various manners, generating unpredictable effects that bring about a great deal of uncertainty in the evaluation process.
There is a need to assess both the monetary and non-monetary aspects of introducing these technologies, especially in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that frequently have less sophisticated management accounting systems.
This article presents an evaluation model and examines how this model has been developed in collaboration with different stakeholders, shedding light on various tangible and intangible aspects under assessment and the computational aspects of the evaluation.
The results show that to conceive a model with a satisfactory degree of fit, its structure must be aligned with the specific context, particularly with the cultural and technical profile of the user.
Keywords: Return on investment, Industry 4.0 technology, Investment assessment, Performance measurement, Measurement model.
