The Driving Factors, Risks and Barriers of the Industry 4.0 Concept
The Driving Factors, Risks and Barriers of the Industry 4.0 Concept

Summary/Abstract: The authors of this article were dealing with the questions of which features of today's business environment may become the driving factors in the implementation of Industry 4.0, and what risks and barriers are emerging on this way. The chosen method of research was a combination of the study of specialized reference sources with a research questionnaire probe conducted mainly in the conditions of industrial enterprises in the Czech Republic. The probe has shown that the significant factors influencing the company activity and thus the form and pace of the implementation of breakthrough technologies include the shortage of workers in the required qualification structure, unstable demand from customers, increasing requirements for product individualization, and increasing competitive pressure. In the next three to five years, the companies under examination are going to prefer the implementation of partial elements of digitization and automation rather than integrated systems. The risks of this implementation according to them include especially the shortage of skilled workers who will prepare, implement and use the new technologies. The companies do not want to act too quickly with implementation, while taking into account the financial demandingness of these measures. At the end of this article, the authors ask questions for further investigation, namely to what extent the pace of the replacement of people by new technologies will be influenced by the fact that the cost of labour in the Czech Republic is relatively low.

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