Digital transformation of manufacturing firms: opportunities and challenges for SMEs

Enrico Pieretto and Andreas Hinterhuber provide a framework for the digital transformation for small and medium-sized companies, linking dynamic capabilities, organizational maturity and external drivers to identify six key dimensions of the digital transformation. These six dimensions are: strategic vision, culture for innovation, know-how and intellectual property, digital capabilities, strategic alignment and technology assets. The paper describes core technologies of the digital transformation, namely: big data and analytics, autonomous robots, simulation, horizontal and vertical system integration, industrial IoT, cybersecurity, cloud computing, additive manufacturing, and augmented reality. The paper then reports the findings of four semi-structured interviews with senior executives of early movers in Italy in the digitalization, reporting on the adoption of these key technologies in four companies. The authors use the six-dimensions framework to benchmark the capabilities relevant for the digital transformation of the four companies examined. The paper concludes by suggesting that this framework is indeed potentially useful in benchmarking critical capabilities relevant for the digital transformation of small and medium sized companies.