Barriers and the potential for changes and benefits from the implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions in enterprises

The implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions in Polish enterprises entails both certain barriers and significant potential for changes and numerous benefits. These barriers may result from the costs of implementation of new technologies, the need to adapt employees to new skills and concerns about data security. However, by overcoming these difficulties, companies can benefit from the enormous potential for changes such as increasing production efficiency, optimizing logistics processes or improving product quality. Moreover, the use of Industry 4.0 technologies can contribute to increased innovation, increased competitiveness on the global market and the creation of new jobs. As a result, the benefits of implementing these solutions support Polish enterprises to actively engage in digital transformation, despite the barriers they encounter. The objective of this article is to confront the benefits and potential for changes resulting from the implementation of modern technologies with the barriers that limit this process. The statistical assessment of the differences between the barrier assessment values and the assessment of benefits from the use of technology, as well as between the barrier assessment values and the assessment of the potential for changes, was based on the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test. The study covered representatives of 236 enterprises who mainly held managerial positions at various levels of management staff or persons designated by them who were responsible for research and development activities in the surveyed entities. As a result, it was indicated that the level of involvement in technological transformation among Polish enterprises is moderate. Almost 67% of all the surveyed entrepreneurs can characterize specific Industry 4.0 solutions. Among them, only approximately 6% can be defined as highly digital companies that already have partially digitized operational processes. Moreover, enterprises see more potential benefits and potential changes from the introduction of Industry 4.0 solutions than barriers to their implementation. This study is dedicated to both authors dealing with Industry 4.0 issues and entrepreneurs implementing modern technologies in their companies.