Industry 4.0 is considered a new industrial stage in which vertical and horizontal manufacturing processes integration and product connectivity can help companies to achieve higher industrial performance. However, little is known about how industries see the potential contribution of the Industry 4.0 related technologies for industrial performance, especially in emerging countries. Based on the use of secondary data from a large-scale survey of 27 industrial sectors representing 2225 companies of the Brazilian industry, we studied how the adoption of different Industry 4.0 technologies is associated with expected benefits for product, operations and side-effects aspects. Using regression analysis, we show that some of the Industry 4.0 technologies are seen as promising for industrial performance while some of the emerging technologies are not, which contraries the conventional wisdom. We discuss the contextual conditions of the Brazilian industry that may require a partial implementation of the Industry 4.0 concepts created in developed countries. We summarize our findings in a framework, that shows the perception of Brazilian industries of Industry 4.0 technologies and their relations with the expected benefits. Thus, this work contributes by discussing the real expectations on the future performance of the industry when implementing new technologies, providing a background to advance in the research on real benefits of the Industry 4.0.

Introduction

Industry 4.0 is understood as a new industrial stage in which there is an integration between manufacturing operations systems and information and communication technologies (ICT) – especially the Internet of Things (IoT) – forming the so-called Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) (Wang et al., 2015; Jeschke et al., 2017). This new industrial stage is affecting competition rules, the structure of industry and customers’ demands (Gilchrist, 2016; Bartodziej, 2017). It is changing competition rules because companies business models are being reframed by the adoption of IoT concepts and digitization of factories (Dregger et al., 2016; Lasi et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2015). From the market point of view, digital technologies allow companies to offer new digital solutions for customers, such as internet-based services embedded in products (Ayala et al., 2017; Coreynen et al., 2017). From the operational perspective, digital technologies, such as CPS, are proposed to reduce set-up times, labor and material costs and processing times, resulting in higher productivity of production processes (Brettel et al., 2014; Jeschke et al., 2017). Several countries have recently created local programs to enhance the development and adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. In Germany – where this concept was born – this program was called “High-Tech Strategy 2020”, in the United States was established the “Advanced Manufacturing Partnership”, in China the “Made in China 2025” and in France the “La Nouvelle France Industrielle” (Kagermann et al., 2013; Rafael et al., 2014; Wahlster, 2013; Zhou, 2017; CNI, 2013; Liao et al., 2017). In Brazil, the program called “Towards Industry 4.0” (Rumo à Indústria 4.0) was created by the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI – Agência Brasileira de Desenvolvimento Industrial) together with other initiatives of the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services (MDIC – Ministério da Indústria, Comércio Exterior e Serviços) (ABDI, 2017). All these programs, in both developed and emerging countries aim to disseminate the Industry 4.0 concepts and technologies in local firms.