5. Comparison of the funding measures of "Industry 4.0" in the main European countries

While in Section 4, the analysis of applications of the "Industry 4.0" plan has been referred to an Italian success case, now a picture of the industrial sectors and services that have used the Industry 4.0 funding opportunities in other industrialized European countries is outlined.

First comparative data are available from the various countries with reference to July 2017, in percentages of growth or less referred to the year 2016. From the first quarter of 2016, it is observed that the gross domestic product (GDP) is in constant growth in Germany, France, United Kingdom, United States, and Italy, with an average increase of around 0.3% in these countries, while the highest percentage of industrial growth is observed in Japan (+0.6%) [26].

In terms of the effects of the different interventions of the "Industry 4.0" measures in the major European countries, a particularly interesting variety can be seen. Italy, with its plan strongly based on maximum savings and tax credit, appears among the leading countries for fiscal support to businesses. In its "Industry 4.0", Germany has not focused on tax credits to stimulate research, but above all on direct funds disbursed by tender and on the financing of KfW—Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau [27, 28] to businesses. The federal government has planned the construction of 16 competence centers (5 already active) linked to the production specialization of the Lander. But the Italian model looks more like another German network of excellence, the Research Campuses that develop public-private partnerships with universities. France with "Industrie du Future" represents a model closer to Italy for some incentive choices, starting from super-amortization and tax credit [29]. It does not have a platform specifically dedicated to Industry 4.0, but the United Kingdom has recently changed gear on industrial policy with the green book "Building our industrial strategy" (U.K. Government, Building our Industry Strategy, 2017). GBP 4.7 billion is planned for research by 2020–2021. Great Britain has also made extensive use of tax credits over the last few decades, but now, the new strategy's pillar is the support to commercialization of the results of the innovation of the companies, entrusted to the "Catapults Center" (HVM Catapult—High Value Manufacturing, see web site, 2018). Unlike Italy, the whole strategy of the Netherlands started from the identification of nine leading sectors. To develop them, 19 consortia were created in public-private partnerships that take care of the planning, under them the Field Labs operate, laboratories serving companies [30].

#### 6. Open research problems and perspectives

The analysis of the real cases of two small companies of the Piedmont Region, presented in the previous section, and the illustration of the challenges to apply the four main measures of Industry 4.0 to SMEs suggest open problems for an industrial research that wants to expand and make the innovation and development policies of the SME more effective. Some recent data from the Italian Ministry for Economic Development give preliminary indications useful for identifying open problems and research developments.

#### Innovate Manufacturing SMEs in the Context of Industry 4.0: A Formal Approach DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88017

The first document is the survey carried out by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development on the use of the various measures of Industry 4.0. According to the report, almost half of the manufacturing companies with over 250 employees made use of Industry 4.0, while only 6% of those with less than 10 employees and 18% of those with 10–50 employees did so. These data for the first time highlight the reduced propensity of micro and small businesses to invest in new technologies [https://www.met-economia.it/viavia-indagine-met-2017]. On this phenomenon, the report of the Supervisor of Micro and Small Medium Enterprises, appointed ad hoc by the Government, has been tried, with an intervention in which it proposes a revision of the amortization coefficients, modifying the hyper amortization, currently supporting main investments in machinery, providing a reward for datadriven innovation of production processes, and a renewed focus on issues of safety at work, ergonomics and collaborative automation.

These surveys confirm the opinion of the authors, concerning the ability of SMEs managers to access the measures of Industry 4.0. With reference to the "hyper-amortization" measure requested by the company SME//1, the objective to be achieved is the digitization of the entire production process, with the insertion of three machines for cold molding. Above all, it seemed difficult to interconnect the model and the process, in order to transmit real data to the model itself. This is because the company—like the majority of SMEs—has few data collection points.

With this in mind, the proposal of a line of research and industrial development based on the use of intelligent sensors like the Internet of Things (IoT) even in an SME is very promising.

The problem immediately following was the definition of a map of measurement points, with specification of the type of information obtainable and of the data format, quantitative or qualitative. This aspect is particularly important for the identification of the model, and therefore of its use. It follows the need to develop an industrial research on procedures for the identification of models of dynamic production processes.

Another problem was the management of a very large number of data, collected with small sampling step. For example, approximate data of the SME//1 company indicate about 30,000 small output products from each of the 5 lines per hour, measured from about 20 measurement points in 15 working hours (two shifts). Therefore about 2000 data/hours collected from each of the measurement points must be channeled, cataloged, and evaluated in order to guarantee the traceability of the products. The amount of data and the speed necessary to treat them opens another line of industrial research.

A common conclusion can be drawn from the above analysis: Industry 4.0 offers a really new opportunity for all companies that want to seize the opportunities connected to the fourth industrial revolution, where the key words of "digitalization of industrial processes" and "enhancement of skills in the development of new products and new technologies" are associated with operational project tools. However, researchers and managers have to find a common language, and analyze together tools for the project, for the evaluation, and for the possible application of new machines for very fast and very accurate processing, which can be easily interconnected with others in an existing plant, and are equipped with sensors that follow the movements of components and products, allowing complete traceability This aspect—search for a common language—is perhaps the problem that needs the fastest possible solution.

On the financial point of view, obviously, the SME//1 manager will require higher tax credit possible under the plan "Industry 4.0": to this aim, a "hyperamortization" has been computed, based on the value of the purchased machine

5. Comparison of the funding measures of "Industry 4.0" in the main

While in Section 4, the analysis of applications of the "Industry 4.0" plan has been referred to an Italian success case, now a picture of the industrial sectors and services that have used the Industry 4.0 funding opportunities in other industrial-

First comparative data are available from the various countries with reference to July 2017, in percentages of growth or less referred to the year 2016. From the first quarter of 2016, it is observed that the gross domestic product (GDP) is in constant growth in Germany, France, United Kingdom, United States, and Italy, with an average increase of around 0.3% in these countries, while the highest percentage of

In terms of the effects of the different interventions of the "Industry 4.0" measures in the major European countries, a particularly interesting variety can be seen. Italy, with its plan strongly based on maximum savings and tax credit, appears among the leading countries for fiscal support to businesses. In its "Industry 4.0", Germany has not focused on tax credits to stimulate research, but above all on direct funds disbursed by tender and on the financing of KfW—Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau [27, 28] to businesses. The federal government has planned the construction of 16 competence centers (5 already active) linked to the production specialization of the Lander. But the Italian model looks more like another German network of excellence, the Research Campuses that develop public-private partnerships with universities. France with "Industrie du Future" represents a model closer to Italy for some incentive choices, starting from super-amortization and tax credit [29]. It does not have a platform specifically dedicated to Industry 4.0, but the United Kingdom has recently changed gear on industrial policy with the green book "Building our industrial strategy" (U.K. Government, Building our Industry Strategy, 2017). GBP 4.7 billion is planned for research by 2020–2021. Great Britain has also made extensive use of tax credits over the last few decades, but now, the new strategy's pillar is the support to commercialization of the results of the innovation of the companies, entrusted to the "Catapults Center" (HVM Catapult—High Value Manufacturing, see web site, 2018). Unlike Italy, the whole strategy of the Netherlands started from the identification of nine leading sectors. To develop them, 19 consortia were created in public-private partnerships that take care of the planning, under them the Field Labs operate, laboratories serving companies [30].

The analysis of the real cases of two small companies of the Piedmont Region, presented in the previous section, and the illustration of the challenges to apply the four main measures of Industry 4.0 to SMEs suggest open problems for an industrial research that wants to expand and make the innovation and development policies of the SME more effective. Some recent data from the Italian Ministry for Economic Development give preliminary indications useful for identifying open

tool, according to the computation in Table 1:

European countries

Mass Production Processes

ized European countries is outlined.

industrial growth is observed in Japan (+0.6%) [26].

6. Open research problems and perspectives

problems and research developments.

196

Mass Production Processes
