Adoption of digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned from collaborative Academia-Industry R&D case studies

Abstract

The need of lockdown, due to COVID-19, led many manufacturing companies to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies. Manufacturing companies were strongly affected by workforce shortages associated with the spread of COVID-19 and the lockdown, as well by connectivity losses among business partners. Therefore, these companies are reviewing their strategies to increase productivity, mainly embracing digital manufacturing technologies. Here the adoption of digital technologies aims to improve efficiency and flexibility in their processes, also improving connectivity among business partners. This study investigates how collaborative academia-industry R&D cases accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by manufacturing companies, given the current COVID-19 pandemic situation. Based on multiple case studies, this article reports the challenges and the strategies of three ongoing collaborative industry-academia R&D projects developed during the COVID pandemic situation. The results are presented in four different perspectives derived from industry 4.0 readiness maturity models: interpersonal communication, personal competencies and skills, systems integration, and technological strategy. It highlights the importance of manufacturing companies to have a well-designed digitalization strategy, need of continuous training and development of their workforce, and the support of Research & Technology Organizations (RTO) to bring more maturity to the efforts required during a turbulent situation. The results of this paper can provide relevant decision support for manufacturing companies, and its stakeholders, in face of challenges of the actual pandemic and post-pandemic scenario.