Evaluation of industry 4.0 integration in the aerospace defense industry

Industry 4.0 that initially was arisen in Germany in 2011 has started to transform and change the industry and production processes. The change of the industry owing to industry 4.0 come about faster apart from other industrial revolutions, the effect of that change has been perceived in plenty of areas. Especially, the developments in production technologies caused by industry 4.0 has affected manufacturing industry. Via digital transformation and development, the form of demand and quantity for defence industry products has also increased. Due to fact that, defence industry has been affected significantly by digital transformation. To assess adoptation levels of companies, usage of industry 4.0 and strengths and weaknesses of the companies, maturity model are used. Industry 4.0 main dimensions and sub-dimensions have difference important levels for each industry sector. In addition, it is also possible that the dimensions might change over time. Because of that, whichever maturity level is used, the dimensions that are proper for the sector should be used and assessed along with weight. In that study, the maturity assessment was performed for Turkish Defence Industry. In order to assess that, two phases evaluation method has been used. In the first phase, main dimensions and sub- dimensions for defence industry were determined in the light of previous studies on that subject. In that the determined main dimensions and sub-dimensions have difference importance levels for sector specific, importance level comparison was asked to eight different experts in terms of the main dimensions and sub- dimensions. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used for that comparison. In the second phase of the study, questions about maturity level of Industry 4.0 in defence industry were asked to nine different defence industry companies. According the answer that were given, points calculation was performed. As a consequence of the study, Industry 4.0 maturity levels in Turkish Defence Industry were presented according to the sectors. According to data that was collected from experts and defence industry companies, it was seen that strategy management and organization along with risk and safety aspects were more mature rather than other aspects. As a final consequence of the evaluation, it was seen that Industry 4.0 integration in aviation defence industry was in beginning level.