Industry 4.0: Value Generation and Adoption of Digitalization and Industrial IoT in Production : The Case of Swedish Production Focused Companies in Mälardalen

In a historical sense, technology has always been used to find practical solutions to certain problems. From the development of heat- and steam engine, to the new revolution of Industry 4.0. Technological advancements are in today’s society becoming more autonomous and automated, with the generation of- and utilization of Big Data. This is mainly the reason for the development of technologies such as “Internet of Things” (IoT) and its adoption and value generation for the manufacturing industry. The technology of IoT, when implemented in an industrial context, are often times refers to as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). As novelty of technology is often times, well researched in a technological sense, the purpose of this thesis has been to extend the understanding of value generation and creation within the context of Industry 4.0 for production focused companies, as well as to find the drivers of adopting IoT into manufacturing. As the thesis is a qualitative study based on prior scientific journals regarding this topic and with data collection from five in-depth interviews, the research framework that has been pursued, has been according to Grounded Theory. The process from raw data, through the creation of 1storder concepts and 2ndorder themes, the resulting findings, has shown that the manufacturing industry finds its value generation and, drivers of adoption within four dimensions that this thesis has concluded: Competitiveness,Optimization, Veracityand Control. From the identified drivers of this thesis, main value are generated through improved data-driven decision-making and meeting future customer demand. Other value generators, are found within optimization of mainly resource and machine optimization within the actual production. Ultimately, where value are being generated with IoT adoption are many, but decreasing risks associated with Supply Chain and transportation are together with above mentioned value generators, where manufacturing firms are find their increased value generation with Industry 4.0 adoption and what drives the manufacturing companies to adopt technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things