A performance measurement system for industry 4.0 enabled smart manufacturing system in SMMEs- A review and empirical investigation

Abstract The smart manufacturing systems (SMS) offer several advantages compared to the traditional manufacturing systems and are increasingly being adopted by manufacturing organizations as a strategy to improve their performance. Developing an SMS is expensive and complicated, integrating together various technologies such as automation, data exchanges, cyber-physical systems (CPS), artificial intelligence, internet of things (IoT), and semi-autonomous industrial systems. The Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) have limited resources and therefore, would like to see the benefits from investments before allowing adopting SMS. This study uses a combination of exploratory and empirical research design to identify and validate the performance measures relevant to the evaluation of SMS investments in auto-component manufacturing SMMEs based in India. The study found that an Industry 4.0 enabled SMS offer more competitive benefits compared to a traditional manufacturing system. The planned investments in SMS can be evaluated on ten performance dimensions namely, cost, quality, flexibility, time, integration, optimized productivity, real-time diagnosis & prognosis, computing, social and ecological sustainability. Proposed novel Smart Manufacturing Performance Measurement System (SMPMS) framework is expected to guide the practitioners in SMMEs to evaluate their SMS investments.