Assessment of businesses awareness and perception level of digital transformation (industry 4.0): The case of Elaziğ OIZ

The main purpose of the countries is to increase the quality of life of their citizens. The most important tool for increasing the level of welfare is to become economically strong. The main element that keeps the economies of the country alive is the enterprises operating in the manufacturing sector. Businesses should give importance to technological innovations in order to maintain their competitive positions and to raise them to higher levels. Digitalization is the most important step in these technological innovations. For businesses, digital transformation is critical not only for its contribution to profitability but also for gaining a competitive advantage. The aim of this study is to measure the knowledge levels of the enterprises operating in Elazığ Organized Industrial Zone about the new production model called Digital Transformation (Industry 4.0) and to determine how suitable their existing infrastructure is for digital transformation. In addition, the extent to which the benefits of technological change in production are well known by the enterprises has been investigated. A total of 82 enterprises from 9 different sectors operating in the Organized Industrial Zone of Elazığ were interviewed using the prepared questionnaire. The results of the survey were analysed using statistical tools. Nonparametric statistical methods were used since the data did not present a normal distribution as a result of the normality analysis conducted on the collected data. The Spearman correlation test was applied to determine the relationships between the continuous variables constituting the questionnaire. The relationships between continuous variables and categorical variables were examined by Kruskal Wallis H and Mann Whitney U tests. As a result of the analysis conducted, it was determined that the business authorities had insufficient knowledge about Industry 4.0, and they did not have any goals and objectives regarding Industry 4.0. A strong and nearly strong correlation was found between the general approach to Industry 4.0 and the approach to Industry 4.0 in the context of strategy and organization. No significant differences were found between the businesses' approaches to Industry 4.0 by the number of customers, number of employees and annual turnover. It is the first research study to analyse the preparations and expectations of different sectors in Elazığ's Organized Industrial Zone for Digitalization in Industry.