Challenges hindering the technology adoption of 4.0
The transition from traditional business to business 4.0, like any development, brings a multitude of challenges. These challenges fall into 3 main categories:
- Waiting for a next version;
- Cultural obstacles;
- Resistance to change;
Waiting for a next version;
The wait for a next version refers to the perception of many managers that the company 4.0 is just one new trend among many and that there will be something better in a few years.
Rather than recognizing today the opportunities to adopt and master the technologies that transform the economy, organizations and the new business models that result from them, they prefer to wait and observe, from a distance, what others are doing. .
Cultural obstacles;
The transition to the 4.0 enterprise involves human, organizational and technological changes within all organizations that want to take the next step. For example, the questioning of the management style, the transition from a silo operating mode to a more transversal operating mode, the evolution of the classic organization towards an organization with dual communication.
These changes can only be desired a priori.
However, if the starting culture of the company is too far from the target, the changes for a team to adopt 4.0 technologies will take longer to implement. However, no organizational culture is impermeable to the principles of the company 4.0, it is about taking into account the current culture and developing change management approaches in alignment with the technological tools available to your team.
Resistance to change;
Any change, regardless of its nature, whether small or large, brings about a situation of instability, of loss of bearings which can provoke an attraction for the new, but also resistance, even sometimes a significant level of stress for some. The phenomenon of resistance to change, in itself is quite natural, can have several origins.
The implementation of new tools, new modes of operation may also not be meaningful for the people who will have to use them at the start of the deployment, regardless of the hierarchical level. The evolution towards a 4.0 company will not then be legitimized if the purposes are not understood and described in a functional analysis. The project will be assimilated to a simple fad, if no time horizon for each of the stages is shared with your team who will have to adapt to it as and when.
Thus, in order to facilitate the change in the transformation towards a 4.0 company, it is important to consider several approaches:
- Functional impact analysis;
- Identification of team managers by department and appropriation of their role during training;
- Communication of the Milestones to be reached in order to benefit from the new functionalities, accompanying and support measures according to a schedule;
- Accompaniment and support according to your needs and business processes;