Current situation in the world and Turkey in industry 4.0 digital transformation: Industry 4.0 awareness review in TR41 region

It is expected that radical changes will take place in global economic activities with Industry 4.0 technologies, which is called the Fourth Industrial Revolution and was first introduced at the Hannover fair in Germany in 2011. This change brought about by Fourth Industrial Revolution will lead to important developments especially in the manufacturing industry. In this respect, some competitive advantages that will emerge depending on the speed of catching the revolution is an important issue on the agenda of many countries. As a developing country, it is seen that Turkey has long-term goals to adapt its industry fully and quickly to the new revolution in order to gain these advantages. This study basically aims to examine Industry 4.0 awareness at the regional level in Turkey, specifically for the manufacturing industry. In addition, examining the company objectives and infrastructure status for Industry 4.0 is among objectives of the study. In this context, analyzes were made on a data set obtained through online surveys from 90 companies in TR41 region consisting of Bursa, Eskişehir and Bilecik, which are among provinces of TR41 region industrial cluster connecting Central Anatolia Region and Marmara Region. The study aims to make a unique contribution to literature in terms of examining the subject for the first time in TR41 region.