Industry 4.0 in the Automotive Sector

The industrial world has been transformed at an unprecedented pace thanks to the development and the convergence of new technologies: the extent to which they have disrupted industries over the last five years is more significant than the previous five decades. Supply chain management is one area that has faced a meaningful transformation with its increasing use. Indeed, the convergence of new technologies has led to the born of a new managerial concept, “Digital Supply Network,” where the classical five-step process (“Develop, Plan, Source, Make, Deliver”) is transformed into an interconnected model of six main capabilities. This research paper aims to assess the level of use of Industry 4.0 technologies in the automotive supplier industry in the core capabilities of supplier companies, having a holistic perspective and not focusing on a single department, and to determine at what point the automotive supplier companies are in the path of the transformation from a traditional supply chain to a digital supply network. Multiple case studies on leading automotive supplier companies will be presented to achieve meaningful outcomes, based chiefly on the primary source of information with expert interviews and secondary sources. The outcomes will help understand how companies effectively use the potential of new technologies, the impact on five supply chain business processes, and the dissimilarities between different tiers of the automotive supply chain.