Digital technologies in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises of the manufacturing industry

Abstract

In the literature, digitalization is often designated as a so-called megatrend. One of the key characteristics of megatrends is that they are characterized by their ability to influence the environment in a variety of areas. In the case of digital change, this process is powered by digital technologies. Scientific publications from the recent past were examined as part of a literature review with the aim to identify and assess digital technologies and their areas of application in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the manufacturing industry. The study highlights that a significant proportion of scientific research in this area focuses on “Industry 4.0” and the associated digital technologies. However, it also became clear that there are different classifications of digital technologies in literature. It has also been shown that there is a wide variety of technologies and devices that are considered as digital technologies in the respective literature sources. Without appropriate sub-categorization, this variety could make it difficult to compare digital technologies in cross-literature studies. Furthermore, the study revealed indications that the interplay of digital technologies appears to be an underrepresented topic in the studies examined. For this reason, this study encourages a more holistic view of the digital technologies used by manufacturing SMEs.