The Future of Smart Production for SMEs: A Methodological and Practical Approach Towards Digitalization in SMEs

This book explains and exemplifies how SMEs can embrace the Smart Production approach and technologies in order to gain a beneficiary outcome. The book describes the Smart Production vision for SMEs, as well as the method to get there. The concept behind the book is based on the long-term experience of the authors in researching and tackling problems of SMEs in the manufacturing sector. The book provides applied methods and obtained solutions in different branches and different sizes of SMEs, encompassing a broad survey of our markets and societies. The perspective is systemic/holistic and integrated including human, organizational, technological, and digital perspectives.

Ole Madsen is Professor at the Department of Materials and Production at Aalborg University, Denmark, where he is Head of the research group on Robotics and Automation. He has more than 25 years of experience in industrial automation. He is Co-founder of the AAU Smart Production laboratory, and he has since 2016 been Laurids Andersen Professor with the focus on bringing Smart Production and Industry 4.0 to SMEs. His research interests include flexible robotics, reconfigurable manufacturing systems, and Industry 4.0.