How to assess investments in industry 4.0 technologies? A multiple-criteria framework for economic, financial, and sociotechnical factors

Abstract Companies that want to adopt Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies may face difficulties evaluating the return on I4.0 investments. The complexity of implementing such technologies and uncertainties regarding the technological requirements, benefits, and organizational impacts make investment decisions challenging in this context. We propose an investment appraisal framework for I4.0 technologies adoption based on a multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach. Using the Innovation Diffusion and Sociotechnical theories, we build a framework with three main stages (knowledge, persuasion, and decision) to guide practitioners through an analysis of I4.0 investments from three different perspectives: Economic, Financial, and Sociotechnical factors. We provide conceptual criteria for investment appraisal and a methodological approach to combine quantitative and qualitative data for the comparative assessment. We show an empirical application of this framework to assess ten I4.0 technology projects proposed in a multinational company. The application helps to illustrate the use of this tool. It brings new practical insights into how to organize I4.0 investment projects into the following categories: strategic or structuring, value-creating, and side investments. We also show the need to include several qualitative requirements and benefits in the technology evaluation to obtain a more robust view of Industry 4.0 investment priorities.