Manufacturing network coordination in the digital age

Changes related to the information age or Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) have led to new opportunities, which influence the internationally distributed manufacturing networks. The derived results show that IIoT initiatives are based on five dimensions (digital technologies, connectivity, data, capabilities and management), which are highly interrelated. The analysis reveals that if the level of standardisation in products, processes and systems is high and headquarters takes the responsibility to centrally manage the network and give little autonomy to the plants, a company can unravel the potential of its IIoT initiatives more than without taking the manufacturing network coordination into account