Industry 4.0 readiness: the impact of digital transformation on supply chain performance

Abstract

In the context of Digital Economy the usage of information and communication technology to promote commercial operations has grown significantly with the advent of electronic business and networking systems. This research focuses on the new generation technologies and on communications between all supply chain components. The study enable Russian and Thai retail supply chain administrators and market leaders (including policy makers) to share their expert opinion about impact of digital transformation on supply chain performance. Once each organization affirmed its commitment to be engage in the interview, analytical conclusions were made on the basic of semi-structured open discussions and surveys of 18-36 employees from each organization which were combined in such a way as to present a complete profile of the organizations readiness to Industry 4.0 strategy. 236 semi-structured open interviews focused on a few topics and keywords have been performed. In fact, five generalized qualitative interviews (profiles) present the analytical evidence from five leading brands. This approach helps to consider more fully how they perceive and understand digital transformation. The purpose was to gain a rich basis of the interviewed person’s content and this approach is quite well adapted to analyses. The research implemented the quantitative methodology throughout using the named data and had been treated with SPSS statistical tool for hypotheses validation. As the result statistically evidenced presence of a relationship between digitalization, the Industry 4.0 technologies and supply chain performance.