In the following chapter, the strengths and weaknesses of both introduced Industry 4.0 Readiness Checks will be analyzed and compared to provide a basis for the even-tual selection of the most fitting readiness check for the case company – Bender Tribünen. This method is supposed to help support the decision making process and should contrast with both sides of the self-check. The following table lists the strengths and weaknesses of the Impuls – Industry 4.0 Readiness Check.
Figure 4: Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis of the Impuls - Industry 4.0 Readiness Check (own representation, 2018)
Strengths Weaknesses
• The landing page is very struc-tured and thus supports an easy and fast usage of the study.
• Focus on the study and not mis-leading through other discussed topics or offered studies on the homepage
• Detailed explanation of the tested classes in advance of the self-check as well as introduction of the development organization.
• Graphical presentation of the scope of the self-check for a more illustrative understanding of the test which supports the usability for the interviewee.
• The study covers all important classes and categories of Industry 4.0 and therefore, increases its significance for the tested com-pany.
• The self-check has a short dura-tion and takes only about 8-12 minutes to finish.
• Quick processing of the answers and result output.
• The test is available in English as well as German language which
• Questionnaire is too short in some classes for a better under-standing of the company’s status quo in this specific area to be as-certained.
• The action recommendations are too general and too short to un-derstand what the company should change.
• There is no adaptation of the self-check to the changing inputs of the interviewee for example in terms of company size, product or certain characteristics.
• The test results are underlined on-ly with a few graphical evalua-tions of the answers and there-fore, do not give an illustrative understanding of the situation of the company.
• The self-check does not give a detailed answer analysis. The evaluation results are only dimen-sion related rather than answer lated which generalizes the re-sults and limits the transparency of the results.
• Traceability of the evaluation ranks is not given. No clear
un-increases the diversity of partici-pants and therefore, the validity of the overall test results.
• The test gives a detailed analysis of the current status of Industry 4.0 in the company
• The weighing of the dimensions distributes the importance of each dimension for the company and therefore, provides a better un-derstanding of which dimension should be focused on.
• The test ranks the interviewed company from beginner to expert and gives the company a starting point from which to progress.
With continuous redoing of the test the interviewee can control its improvements in the imple-mentation of Industry 4.0.
• Validity is underlined by in-volved partners which are univer-sities, organizations and corporate companies.
derstanding of when each evalua-tion rank is reached.
The following table lists the strengths and weaknesses of the Inlumia – Industry 4.0 Self-Check.
Figure 5: Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis of the Inlumia - Industry 4.0 Self-Check (own representation, 2018)
Strengths Weaknesses
• The landing page is very struc-tured and thus supports an easy and fast usage of the study.
• Short explanation about Industry 4.0 and its importance for com-panies for today’s fast moving and developing competition.
• Quick processing of the answers and result output.
• The test gives a detailed analysis
• The self-check takes a longer time because of the intensive amount of the questions asked.
• The questionnaire is not as easy to answer as the Impuls test. The test includes longer and more complex questions as well as an-swers for the interviewee and therefore, requires more time. It takes about 20-30 min to com-plete the self-check of Inlumia.
of the current status of Industry 4.0 in the company.
• Validity is underlined by the in-tensive support of reliable part-ners from universities, organiza-tions and corporate companies.
• Graphical presentation of the re-sults of the self-check including a matrix which shows the actual evaluation results compared to the average result from testing and the cluster specific result.
• Each test question will be ana-lyzed and reviewed in the results of the self-check and compared to the given peer group and overall average.
• The self-check is only available in German language which nar-rows down the participants of the test and also the validity of the average test results. Only focus is Germany.
• No explanation of the scope of the test. The interviewee has to start the test without further knowledge beforehand.
• No detailed explanation of the dimensions which will be includ-ed in the test.
• The test is not covering all rele-vant topics for Industry 4.0.
There is no specific dimension of Smart Factory, Smart Products etc.
• The self-check lacks suitable ac-tion recommendaac-tions for the tested company. There is too little information output for a useful implementation of the test results.
• No evaluation rank for the com-pany. The only results which are given to the interviewee are com-parisons to the overall average re-sults and the chosen peer group of the company.
• There is no adaptation of the self-check to the changing inputs of the interviewee for example in terms of company size, product or certain characteristics.
• The page also refers to other stud-ies and self-checks which can be done. This can cause distraction and mislead the interviewee’s in-tention of doing the Industry 4.0 Readiness Check.