Barriers for the Implementation of Industry 4.0 in Storage Drive Manufacturing Industry

Employing advanced technology in manufacturing will improve productivity and resource efficiency as well as reduce long term operating cost. Storage drive manufacturers focus on the advanced technology adoption as a way to reduce their operating cost. Despite many benefits of Industry 4.0, integration and implementation are not easily achievable. This research aims to identify the barriers of Industry 4.0 implementation in storage drive industry in the context of hard disk drive (HDD) and solid-state drive (SSD) manufacturing and to suggest guidelines to overcome the barriers. Starting from extensive literature review, followed by expert justification, 15 barriers for the implementation of Industry 4.0 in storage drive manufacturing industry were identified. The fuzzy AHP approach was used to prioritise the barriers. The study found that for both HDD and SSD industries, ‘economic’ criteria is the priority followed by ‘technology’ and ‘organisation’ criteria. The result suggests that decision makers should find avenues to overcome these three barriers before implementing Industry 4.0 in the storage drive manufacturing industry. Getting sufficient financial fund for capital investment, being technological-oriented organisation and getting strong management support for new technology are the main guideline for the industry. The research methodology in this study could be applied in other manufacturing industries to identify barriers and plan for strategic actions before the intelligent manufacturing implementation.