(Evaluation of Enterprises in Bilecik Organized Industrial Zone in terms of Industry 4.0)

Abstract

Purpose – Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially in the manufacturing sector, face various difficulties in digitizing their production. Industry 4.0 brings fundamental changes to all traditional business models and accelerates the need to redesign and digitize all business activities. The main purpose of the study is to determine how close businesses are to the Industry 4.0 concept and to evaluate the situation in terms of transition process. Design/methodology/approach – This study was carried out in order to determine the stage of the enterprises operating in the Organized Industrial Zones of Bilecik in the transition to Industry 4.0. There are a total of 110 companies in the Industrial Zone, 71 of which have been reached. In the study, a questionnaire was applied to the enterprises that can be reached with the convenience sampling method, without discriminating between large, medium and small scale. SPSS Statistics 22.00 program was used for data analysis. Findings – Clustering analysis was used to interpret the success and transition rate of the enterprises in the sector in the transition process in Industry 4.0. In addition, skewness and kurtosis analysis was performed to test the compliance of the parts of the questionnaire subjected to analysis to normal distribution. It was determined that the biggest problems of the enterprises participating in the survey during the transition to Industry 4.0 are the lack of qualified workforce and investment capital. Discussion – Research results; The enterprises participating in the survey use the wireless network, internet of things and computer networks intensely as cyber physical technological infrastructure. It has been determined that enterprises improve themselves about the infrastructure deficiencies related to data mining and data analysis, which are important in Industry 4.0. The study is restricted with the industry 4.0 situation assessment of enterprises located in Bilecik Organized Industrial Zone. A situation assessment analysis can be done by expanding it to larger organized industries in the future