Towards a Digital Factory in the Leather Goods Sector: The Case of an Italian Company

Manufacturing companies to start successful digital transition turn to Industry 4.0. In order to maintain competitiveness on the global market and answer customer demands, industries need to adopt a set of digital technologies to innovate their production processes. The paper aims to propose a methodology that is a step-by-step path to summarize the application phases that a manufacturing company should follow to realize its business digital transformation. The proposed methodology is applied to the case study of an Italian company operating in the luxury leather goods sector. The case study starts from the assessment of the digital maturity of the company. A detailed mapping of the production process and a specific data collection allowed to identify which business processes are particularly critical and should be optimized through the use of digital and enabling technologies. A strategic roadmap is suggested and priorities for resolution are finally defined on the basis of the technological gap and the company’s strategy of enabling actions to mitigate the criticalities.n