Industry 4.0 in Turkey: A roadmap for manufacturer smes operating at the medium high and high technology level

In digital transformation era, the effectiveness of technological developments in every field of life such as health, agriculture and education is increasing and a new transformation is taking place. These developments, known as Industry 4.0, provide benefits to businesses in various fields from efficiency to flexible production, from reducing costs to increasing capacity. SMEs are candidates to become the biggest beneficiaries of the technologies and applications of Industry 4.0 in the future. For this reason, the industry 4.0 awareness and knowledge level of SMEs operating in the medium-high and high technology level in the manufacturing sector in our country was investigated. Also; as part of the fourth industrial revolution, the challenges faced by enterprises, the levels of industry 4.0 maturity, the usage levels of technologies and applications of industry 4.0, the expectations from the new industrial revolution, and the contributions of SMEs that have applied. Within the framework of research, it has reached 391 company using the survey method. Industry 4.0 awareness and knowledge level of SMEs is medium or low. The lack of knowledge and talent working with the technological infrastructure of the enterprise, high implementation costs, the uncertainty of economic benefits and reservations are the main challenges faced by the enterprises. In addition, it has been determined that the SMEs are approximately 2,5 out of industry 4.0 maturity level of 5. In this study, the results obtained from the research and the literature review were analyzed together and recommendations were made to policy makers, universities and industry sector.