Aus der Einleitung: "Auf der Hannovermesse 2011 wurde zum ersten Mal der Begriff "Industrie 4.0" der Öffentlichkeit bekannt gemacht. Die Akademie der Technikwissenschaften hat in einer Arbeitsgruppe diese Grundidee der vierten Revolution der Industrieproduktion weiterbearbeitet und 2013 in einem Abschlussbericht mit dem Titel „Umsetzungsempfehlungen für das Zukunftsprojekt Industrie 4.0“ veröffentlicht (BmBF, 2013). Die Grundidee besteht darin, wandlungsfähige und effiziente Fabriken unter Nutzung moderner Informationstechnologie zu entwickeln. Basistechnologien für die Umsetzung der intelligenten Fabriken sind: — Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) — Internet of Things (IoT) und Internet of Services (IoS) — Big Data Analytics and Prediction — Social Media — Mobile Computing Der Abschlussbericht fokussiert den Wertschöpfungsschritt der Produktion, während die Fragen der Produktentwicklung weitgehend unberücksichtigt geblieben sind. Die intelligente Fabrik zur Herstellung intelligenter Produkte setzt aber auch die Weiterentwicklung der Produktentwicklungsmethoden voraus. Auch hier gibt es einen großen Handlungsbedarf, der sehr stark mit den Methoden des „Modellbasierten Systems-Engineering“ einhergeht. ..."

Die Industrie 4.0 führt aktuell zu revolutionären Veränderungen und Herausforderungen im Industriesektor, auf die Unternehmen mit neuen Geschäftsmodellen reagieren müssen. Die Masterarbeit gibt mit Hilfe einer Status-Quo Analyse eine Bestandsaufnahme über die aktuellen digitalen Geschäftsmodelle deutscher Industrieunternehmen. Die Erkenntnisse wurden auf Basis von 71 \"Mini-Cases\" erhoben. Dabei wurden Anbieter, sowie Anwender von Industrie 4.0 Technologien untersucht und in neun Muster kategorisiert. Auf Grundlage dieser Ergebnisse wurde ein inkrementeller Transformationsprozess konzipiert, der zur Entwicklung von digitalen Geschäftsmodellen in der Industrie 4.0 genutzt werden kann.

Today’s industries are facing what some may call a new industrial revolution. Technological developments are heading towards more internet-based system solutions. This movement is often referred to as Industry 4.0 and is said to have the potential for more flexible, autonomous productions capable of managing themselves. With new technologies, however, there is also a demand for new competences and qualification requirements on the workforce. Furthermore, industries of today often have problems with recruiting new competent employees, especially younger people. Industries looking to implement Industry 4.0 would therefore have to manage the education and development of existing employees while also attracting new employees. As part of a larger research project at Luleå University of Technology, this thesis project aims to describe how the control rooms in Swedish metallurgic industries will be affected by Industry 4.0. Furthermore, the project aims to describe what changes that are desirable for achieving a sustainable, effective and equal industry. To better achieve this goal, the project was done in collaboration with the metallurgic industry SSAB, specifically the steel production in Luleå. Through visits, interviews and observations at the control rooms in SSAB’s steel production, the context of today’s control room work was detailed. This context was compared to and analyzed using reviewed literature regarding future technologies under Industry 4.0 along with my own speculations on future possibilities. The analyses consists of my reflections on what problems that existed, what could be improved and what worked well in the control rooms. Furthermore, my analyses included the positive and negative effects that the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies could have on the control room work. The analyses were utilized as the basis for creating a vision of how control rooms can develop under Industry 4.0, and the changes that are desirable. The resulting vision compiled from my analyses consists of two scenarios; a dystopian and a utopian scenario. Each scenario depicts exaggerated depictions of the potential results of implementing Industry 4.0. The dystopian scenario depicts the few operators not made obsolete by an autonomous production and how they’ve been affected. They are constantly tracked and have their health monitored during their work, their equipment isn’t designed with the user in mind and the job no longer feels like qualified work. As a contrast, the utopian operators instead utilize the increased capabilities for communication and data gathering from systems and machines to work with tests, development work and optimization. Furthermore, instead of constant monitoring, tracking sensors are instead used to notify emergency personnel if the operator hurts themselves while out working. With these scenarios I also included recommendations for how the utopian vision can be achieved and the dystopian one avoided. These recommendations include involving operators in development of work tasks and instructions to promote employee involvement and control. Furthermore, their involvement allows for the better utilization of their knowledge and experiences, while also potentially helping with making the control room work better adapted to the operators’ needs. According to the results of this project, this will help improve and support efforts to create more attractive workplaces and promote qualifications development. By following the recommendations made, it is my hope that Swedish metallurgic industries like SSAB can better strive for an implementation of Industry 4.0 that is beneficial for both employer and employees. / Dagens industrier möter idag något som vissa kallar en ny industriell revolution. Inom teknikutvecklingen introduceras fler och fler internet-baserade systemlösningar. Denna utveckling namnges ofta som Industri 4.0 och ska kunna möjliggöra flexibla, autonoma produktionsflöden som kan drivas av sig själva. Med ny teknik kommer dock nya kunskapskrav och ett behov av nya kompetenser för arbetskraften. Vidare har dagens industrier ofta även problem med att rekrytera kompetent ny arbetskraft, speciellt bland yngre generationer. Industrier som vill implementera Industri 4.0 kommer därför att behöva hantera både kompetensutvecklingen och utbildningen av befintliga anställda, samt att attrahera nya anställda. Som en del av ett större forskningsprojekt på Luleå tekniska universitet ämnar detta examensprojekt att beskriva hur kontrollrummen i svenska metallindustrier kommer att påverkas av Industri 4.0. Vidare ämnar projektet att beskriva vilka förändringar som är önskvärda med målet att uppnå en hållbar, effektiv och jämställd industri. För att bättre uppnå detta mål utfördes projektet i samarbete med stålindustrin SSAB i Luleå. Genom besök, intervjuer och observationer i deras produktions kontrollrum kunde det nuvarande kontrollrumsarbetet undersökas. Besöken analyserades genom att använda kvalitetsgranskad litteratur om framtida teknik och system under Industri 4.0, samt genom mina egna spekulationer om framtiden. Vidare inkluderade mina analyser vilka positiva och negativa effekter Industri 4.0 kan ha på kontrollrumsarbete. Analyserna användes som en grund för att skapa en vision hur kontrollrumsarbete kan utvecklas under Industri 4.0 samt vilka utvecklingar som är önskvärda. Den resulterande visionen bestod av två scenarier; ett dystopiskt och ett utopiskt scenario. Varje scenario ger överdrivna beskrivningar av de potentiella följderna av en implementering av Industri 4.0. Det dystopiska scenariot beskriver det fåtal kvarvarande kontrollrumsoperatörerna som inte gjorts överflödiga av den autonoma produktionen och hur de påverkas. De spåras konstant i lokalen medan deras hälsa övervakas, samtidigt som deras utrustning inte anpassas efter deras behov och arbetet inte behöver någon vidare kompetens. Som kontrast till det använder den utopiske operatören de ökade möjligheterna för datainsamling från och kommunikation med system och maskiner för att arbeta mer med test, utvecklingsarbete och optimering. Vidare används spårningstekniken inte för konstant övervakning, utan meddelar istället akutpersonal om deras position och tillstånd om de skadar sig när de arbetar ute i lokalen. Med dessa två scenarier tog jag även upp rekommendationer för hur den utopiska visionen kan eftersträvas och den dystopiska undvikas. Rekommendationerna inkluderar att involvera operatörer i utvecklingen av nya arbetsuppgifter och instruktioner för att främja anställdas medverkan och kontroll över sitt arbete. Utöver det möjliggör deras medverkan att deras kunskap och erfarenheter utnyttjas och används, samtidigt som det potentiellt hjälper anpassa kontrollrumsarbetet bättre efter operatörernas behov. Det kommer att hjälpa förbättra och stödja arbetet med att skapa mer attraktiva arbetsplatser och främja kompetensutveckling. Genom att följa rekommendationerna hoppas jag att svenska metallindustrier som SSAB kan enklare arbeta mot en implementation av Industri 4.0 som är fördelaktig för både anställd och för företaget.

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2018-05-25T11:59:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Ferneda_.pdf: 847337 bytes, checksum: 58f84ffbc310762df76212dddc65705a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-25T11:59:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Ferneda_.pdf: 847337 bytes, checksum: 58f84ffbc310762df76212dddc65705a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-23 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O objetivo do presente estudo foi compreender o processo de adoção de tecnologias da indústria 4.0 por firmas do agronegócio do Rio Grande do Sul. Por meio de uma pesquisa exploratória e qualitativa, foram investigados três firmas do agronegócio e uma firma startup. Através de uma amostragem snowball sampling, também foram investigados outros atores que compõem o Sistema Nacional de Inovação (SNI): instituições, especialistas do agronegócio, especialistas da indústria 4.0, Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovações e Comunicações (MCTIC) e o Ministério do Desenvolvimento da Indústria e Comércio Exterior e Serviços (MDIC). Ao total, foram realizadas 14 entrevistas semi estruturadas ao longo de 2017, baseadas nas categorias extraídas do referencial teórico em que abordou a adoção de tecnologias pelas firmas, entre elas: escolha tecnológica, tendências, dificuldades /barreiras, características, mão de obra, papel do Estado, atores institucionais, resultados de inovação e resultado econômico. Os resultados da investigação foram interpretados sob a análise de conteúdo, seguindo as orientações de Bardin (2009). Constatou-se que as tecnologias adotadas são: Big Data, Internet das Coisas e Robótica. Essa adoção vem ocorrendo nas firmas multinacionais, de grande porte, localizadas na região metropolitana e atuantes na fase pré porteira, por meio da internacionalização do conhecimento, formalização do departamento de P&D, investimento em mão de obra qualificada, participação dos clientes e fornecedores em testes de protótipos e aplicação de tecnologias, observação das tendências nacionais e internacionais para o setor. A exceção está na firma C, por ser de origem familiar, brasileira, localizada no interior do Estado e investe seus recursos próprios e crédito oriundo de políticas públicas para o desenvolvimento da P&D. Destaca-se o papel de uma startup, como forma de promover e estimular práticas tecnológicas específicas para o agronegócio, visando a flexibilidade, eficiência em custos e em produção, competitividade, comunicação entre máquinas e seres humanos e outros atributos capazes de agregar valor para o setor pré e pós porteira. O papel das instituições foi identificado como fundamental, contribuindo para a qualificação de recursos humanos, tecnológicos e sociais, desenvolvimento nos testes de protótipos, máquinas e equipamentos e na consultoria por meio de projetos em parceria público-privado, como também, as parcerias em que o MCTIC e MDIC estão realizando para a efetivação do desenvolvimento do Plano Nacional de Internet das Coisas e de Manufatura Avançada, onde permite compreender o conhecimento das referidas tecnologias e aplicá-las nas firmas brasileiras. Os resultados das inovações adotadas pelas firmas ocorre através da participação dos clientes e fornecedores nos testes de protótipos, expansão e diversificação da produção, controle e eficiência na tomada de decisão e redução dos custos, assistência técnica e pós venda. Quanto aos resultados econômicos adotados entre as investigadas destacam-se: agregação de valor ao produto final, otimização da força de trabalho, aumento da produtividade e oportunidade de diversificação da cadeia produtiva e eficiência em custos. Conclui-se também, que esforços diversos devem ser feitos por parte de diferentes atores para que o processo de adoção dessas tecnologias seja mais difundido no setor e em firmas com diferentes perfis, proporcionando uma maior agregação de valor e competitividade setorial. / The present study’s objective was to understand the process of technologies adoption of the 4.0 industry in agribusiness firms of Rio Grande do Sul. Through an exploratory and qualitative research, three agribusiness firms and one startup were investigated. Through a sample of ‘snowball sampling’, other actors that compose the National Innovation System (SNI) were investigated too: institutions, agribusiness experts, industry experts 4.0, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and Communication (MCTIC) and the Ministry of Development Industry and Foreign Trade and Services (MDIC). A total of 14 semi-structured interviews were carried out during 2017, based on the categories extracted from the theoretical reference that addressed the adoption of technologies by firms, among them: technological choice, trends, difficulties / barriers, characteristics, labor, role of State, institutional actors, innovation results and economic results. The results of the research were interpreted under the content analysis, following the guidelines of Bardin (2009). It was verified that the technologies adopted are: Big Data, Internet of Things and Robotics. This adoption has been taking place in large multinational firms located in the metropolitan area and which are active in the pre-port phase, through the internationalization of knowledge, formalization of the Research and Development department, investment in skilled labor, participation of customers and suppliers in testing of prototypes and application of technologies, observation of national and international trends for the sector. The exception is in firm C, because it is of Brazilian family origin, located in the interior of the state, and invests its own resources and credit from public policies for the development of research and technology. It highlights the role of a startup, as a way to promote and stimulate specific technological practices for agribusiness, aiming at flexibility, cost and production efficiency, competitiveness, communication between machines and human beings and other attributes capable of adding value to the pre and post market sectors. The role of institutions was identified as fundamental, contributing to the qualification of human, technological and social resources, development in prototype, machine and equipment testing and consulting through public-private partnership projects, as well as the partnerships in which MCTIC and MDIC are realizing for the implementation of the National Internet Plan of Thingsand of Advanced Manufacturing, where it allows to understand the knowledge of the mentioned technologies and to apply them in the Brazilian companies. The innovation results adopted by the company, occurs through the participation of customers and suppliers in prototype testing, production expansion and diversification, control and efficiency in decision making and cost reduction, technical assistance and after sales. Regarding the economic results adopted, the following stand out: aggregation of value to the final product, optimization of the work force, increase of productivity and opportunity of diversification of the productive chain and cost efficiency. It is also concluded that diverse efforts must be made by different actors to make the process of adopting these technologies more widespread in the sector and in firms with different profiles, providing a greater value aggregation and sectorial competitiveness.

A Indústria 4.0, ou quarta revolução industrial, é o atual cenário industrial que estabelece um novo paradigma para os sistemas de produção. A indústria 4.0 é compreendida como a implementação da fábrica inteligente que opera de forma mais autônoma e com menor intervenção humana, cujo propósito é prover serviços e produtos inteligentes que atendam às necessidades individuais dos consumidores. A Indústria 4.0 está amparada nos sistemas ciber-físicos (CPS) e na Internet das Coisas (IoT). Neste cenário máquinas e produtos se comunicam entre si visando automatizar os processos industriais por meio de informações individuais obtidas em tempo real durante os processos de manufatura. No entanto, a Indústria 4.0 e as pesquisas em torno desse assunto ainda são muito recentes e requerem mais investigações no que diz respeito às arquiteturas que suportem a sua implementação, entre elas a comunicação entre produtos e máquinas. Neste quesito, recentemente foi proposto o modelo de arquitetura de referência para a Indústria 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) com o objetivo de nortear a implementação deste tipo de sistema. Contudo, o RAMI 4.0 ainda requer esforços no campo da pesquisa sob diferentes aspectos, entre eles a integração vertical de recursos do sistema de produção. Neste sentido, este trabalho objetiva apresentar uma arquitetura para a descoberta de equipamentos para processar operações conforme as necessidades dos produtos. A arquitetura foi projetada em camadas baseadas no RAMI 4.0 para prover componentes que permitam a comunicação entre equipamentos e produtos, e um mecanismo similar ao sistema de nomes de domínios (DNS - Domain Name System) para realizar a descoberta de equipamentos para processar uma determinada operação. Nessa arquitetura as informações dos equipamentos são armazenadas em uma estrutura organizada hierarquicamente para auxiliar o serviço de descoberta, e os produtos possuem informações das operações necessárias para o processo de manufatura. Para garantir a eficácia do funcionamento dos componentes e suas interações, é necessário a verificação e validação por meio de métodos formais. Neste trabalho a verificação e validação é realizada por meio da técnica PFS (Production Flow Schema)/RdP (Rede de Petri). Por fim, a arquitetura é aplicada em um sistema de produção modular para demonstrar a sistemática de implementação e a sua efetividade. / The Industry 4.0, also known as fourth industrial revolution, is the current industrial scenario that sets a new paradigm for production systems. The Industry 4.0 can be understood as the implementation of the smart factory that operates more autonomously and with less human intervention. The purposes of it is to provide smart products and services that meet the consumer individual needs. The Industry 4.0 is supported by cyber-physical systems (CPS) and Internet of Things (IoT). In this scenario machines and products communicate with each other to automate industrial processes through individual information that are obtained in real time during manufacturing processes. However, the researches around this issue are still very recent and require further investigations with regard of to the architectures that support its implementation, including communication between products and equipment. Taking into account this problem, a Reference Architectural Model for Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) was recently proposed with the purpose to guide the implementation of this system type. However, the RAMI 4.0 still requires efforts in different aspects, including the vertical integration of resources of the production systems. In this sense, this work aims to present an architecture for the discovery of equipment to process operations according to the product needs. The architecture was designed based on layers of the RAMI 4.0 to provide components that allow communication between equipment and products and a Web Service that offer a mechanism similar to the Domain Name System (DNS) to locate equipment to process a required operation. In this architecture the capable operations supported by the equipment are stored in a structure organized hierarchically to aid the discovery service, and the products have information of the operation required for the manufacturing process. In order to guarantee the effectiveness of the component functionalities and their interactions it is necessary to verify and validate them by formal methods. In this work the Production Flow Schema (PFS)/Petri Net (PN) technique is used to develop the conceptual and functional modeling of the architecture. Finally the architecture is applied in a modular production system to demonstrate its implementation systematics and its effectiveness.

The topic of this thesis is Innovation Management in the Chosen Organization. The aim of this work was to evaluate the actual state of innovation management, to identify possible weaknesses of this and to propose changes which can improve the present state. The thesis is divided into two parts. In the theoretical part there is a literary review of term connected with the topic of the thesis. There are descriptions of the terms like innovation, innovation management or innovation process. The practical part begins with the introduction of chosen organization. Then there is described a current state of innovation management in detail. The analysis of actual state of innovation management is based mainly on information obtained in interviews with the director of company and other staff. After that part, there are given some recommendations to improve current situation.

Abstract Purpose- Industry 4.0 as a concept has created a wave of innovation in the manufacturing sector. In Sweden, the goal for the Swedish manufacturing SMEs is to be leaders in digitalization and stay competitive. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to understand the impacts of Industry 4.0 on Swedish manufacturing SMEs. Method- The method used in this research is a multiple case study consisting of three manufacturing SMEs in Sweden. A literature review was conducted in a systematic way to give a background of Industry 4.0 and its technologies. The literature review provided the theoretical base and knowledge about the phenomena which led to preparation of interview guide used for data collection. Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews. Thereafter, the findings were analyzed within case, cross-case and compared with literature. Findings- To analyze the impacts of Industry 4.0 on the manufacturing SMEs, the author developed a framework which included the ten main Industry 4.0 technologies, Porter ́s generic value chain model and industrial performance indicators. During the analysis, it was found that all the companies were users of Industry 4.0; however, they were using mostly robots as the main technologies besides one company using cloud-platform technology. All the companies had impacts on their value chains operation activity. All five performance indicators flexibility, costs, productivity, quality and lead times were found to impact on Swedish manufacturing SMEs. The findings support the same indicators as found in literature. Furthermore, all three case companies confirmed that they have higher profits which shows that the implementation of Industry 4.0 not only improves industrial performance indicators but also can lead to increase in financial performance. Implications- This thesis contributed to both theory and provides suggestions to managers with primary contribution being the framework which itself is a contribution to the theory. The framework can be used both by researchers and managers. Furthermore, the theory provided in the literature review of impacts of different technologies on the value chain can guide the managers to understand which of the technologies are useful in corresponding activities of value chain. The suggestions provided by industry peers are also a major advantage for the managers to prepare their companies for Industry 4.0. Limitations- The research focused only on manufacturing SMEs in Sweden and from industry perspective, only SMEs manufacturing goods were included and not services. Within the case companies, all ten identified Industry 4.0 technologies were not found to be implemented in SMEs, therefore; the analysis and answers to research questions were based on the technologies found. Moreover, there was a constraint of time and resources which led to a small sample of three manufacturing industries. Keywords: Industry 4.0, The fourth Industrial Revolution, Industrie 4.0, Digitization, Value chain, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, SME, Impacts, Barriers

The concept of inventory control has been around since the early 20th century and it’s constantly evolving. The importance of inventory management and supply chain management is clear, and companies are constantly trying to evolve their systems and ways of handling inventory control. By having a proper inventory control system with adequate inventory record audits, a company could potentially have several benefits such as reduced tied-up capital, reduced holding costs, reduced/redistributed work hours, better automation and more. Most organisations and companies have some form of inventory control, however not all have full control of their inventory. This includes automatic inventory balance updates, package traceability, automatic replenishment systems and more. To implement these ideas, a company would need to foremost find what factors are currently hindering them from obtaining this and consequently being able to adjust their factors. Since there are several ways to obtain an automatic inventory record update that is adequate, multiple proposals are discussed in this thesis project. This thesis project assessed what the necessary steps that a company needs to perform are through a case study at Scania CV Engine and a benchmarking at Scania Production Angers. Through a collection of scientific literature and empirical data, an attempt to identify the factors that determine whether a company can implement full inventory control or not was made. As a supplement to this, this thesis project also looked over what type of consequences an implementation of full inventory control could have in a company, both when it comes to purely systemic consequences as well as economic consequences. / Begreppet saldokontroll har cirkulerat sedan början av 1900-talet och teorierna utvecklas ständigt. Betydelsen av lagerstyrning och Supply Chain Management är idag tydlig och företag försöker ständigt utveckla sina system och sätt att hantera saldokontroll på. Genom att ha ordentlig saldokontroll med adekvata lagerregistreringsrevisioner kan ett företag potentiellt få flertalet fördelar som till exempel reducerat bundet kapital, minskade innehavskostnader, reducerade eller omfördelade arbetstimmar, bättre automatisering och mera. De flesta organisationer och företag har någon form av lagerkontroll, men inte alla har 100% kontroll över sina inventeringar. Detta inkluderar automatiska lagerrevisioner, spårbarhet av paket, automatiska påfyllningssystem och mer. För att genomföra dessa idéer måste ett företag framför allt finna vilka faktorer som för närvarande förhindrar dem från att uppnå 100% saldokontroll och följaktligen kunna justera dessa faktorer. Eftersom det finns flera sätt att uppnå automatiska revisioner av inventeringen som är proper så diskuteras flera förslag i denna avhandling. Denna avhandling försöker bedöma vilka nödvändiga steg som ett företag behöver genomföra är genom en utförd fallstudie på Scania CV Engine tillsammans med en benchmarking på Scania Production Angers. Genom en samling av vetenskapliga studier och empiriska data från fallstudien gjordes ett försök att identifiera de faktorer som avgöra om ett företag kan implementera 100% saldokontroll eller inte. Som ett komplement till detta ser denna rapport även över vilken typ av konsekvenser en sådan implementering kan innebära, båda när det gäller rent systematiska förändringar samt ekonomiska förändringar.

Fukt i kyrkans krypgrund är ett ”växande” problem som på senare tid uppmärksammats alltmer. I denna studie har flera möjliga lösningar undersökt, vidare har en allmän angreppsmodell formulerats för att underlätta framtida utredningar. Studien visar bland annat att styrning efter mögelrisken är önskvärt för att få ett energioptimerat och garanterat mögelfritt klimat. Åtgärdsförslag såsom sorptionsavfuktare samt värmning genom elradiator direkt i krypgrunden är möjliga lösningar som med ett litet energitillskott förbättrar klimatet i krypgrunden avsevärt.

Background – Through the progress in information and communication technology (ICT) new possibilities to connect smart objects via the internet arose. The number of connected devices had a strong growth in the past years and will continue rising fast in the next years as well. This new kind of smart and connected products (SCP) enables a lot of new product capabilities which have an impact on the creation of new customer value and competition on the market. Related to that, companies have to deal with digitisation and the affects for their products and manufacturing system. Purpose – The purpose of this thesis is to investigate changes in the manufacturing system when the products are getting smarter and connected. A special focus lays on the well-established Lean thinking approach. The results shall help to understand what new circumstances the decision to make the products smarter and connected will bring for a manufacturing department. Methodology – Relevant literature was reviewed to gain a theoretical framework. For gathering primary data, a qualitative case study was applied. Meetings with members of the case company’s management were arranged to conduct interviews. Additionally, observations were made during a guided tour through the production shop-floor and at a company presentation. The interview was recorded, transcribed and evaluated. Afterwards, the results from the case study were analysed and compared with theory based on the theoretical framework. Conclusions were made. Findings – The differences or changes in manufacturing because the products are getting smarter and connected are much more electronic components and software. Furthermore, new operating equipment is needed. The new circumstances require new knowledge and skills. Therefore, people have to be trained. New problems occur e.g. software problems. The use of Lean tools can be more difficult and time-consuming because of missing know-how and improvements itself are becoming more digital. Contribution – This thesis investigated the effects on the manufacturing system when the products get smarter and connected, which nobody did before. A practical case study with interviews, observations and secondary data from the company was applied. Limitations – The findings match reality based on data from the case company. Available time and access to data from the company’s side were limited. This means that the generalisation must be done with caution. However, it can be said that the findings may apply to many other industrial companies of similar size and similar products.