An Enterprise Architecture Planning Process for Industry 4.0 Transformations

Industry 4.0 changes the manufacturing industry significantly. In order to stay competitive, companies need to develop new business capabilities and business models that are enabled by Industry 4.0 concepts. However, companies are currently struggling with expensive and risky IT transformation projects that are needed to implement such concepts. We observed a lack of research on the planning and modeling part of IT transformations towards Industry 4.0. Therefore, we conducted a series of expert interviews on the topic of enterprise architecture in the context of modeling and planning Industry 4.0 transformations. As a result, we were able to develop a metamodel that can be used as target model for planning endeavors and a planning process that helps as guideline for such planning projects.