Adopting Industry 4.0 by leveraging organisational factors

The manufacturing sector needs to focus on social, environmental and technological factors to integrate Industry 4.0 in production planning, logistics and supply chains. Technical Education Institutes (TEIs) can play a key role in achieving this ambition as they are responsible for the workforce of the digital future. To this end, a learning factory is often referred to as a realistic manufacturing environment. However, the existing research regarding the successful adoption of a learning factory based on Industry 4.0 is scant in the literature. We, therefore, aim to address this research gap by examining key factors that affect the decision to adopt Industry 4.0 in technical education institutes. We have adopted the theoretical lens of the Technology-Organisation-Environment (T-O-E) framework to study industry 4.0 adoption in TEIs. The findings based on 134 valid responses from TEIs in India indicate that the organisational dimension is critical in determining whether or not to adopt Industry 4.0. Our study shows that top management support, internal resources, and the capabilities of the teaching staff are vital for the adoption of Industry 4.0. Additionally, our findings indicate that significant differences exist between public and private TEIs concerning the adoption of Industry 4.0.