How Digital Transformation is Reshaping the Manufacturing Industry Value Chain: The New Digital Manufacturing Ecosystem Applied to a Case Study from the Food Industry

The rapid development and adoption of Internet and digital technologies dramatically changed business processes, leading to a disruptive digital transformation of the whole industry value chain. The so-called Industry 4.0 refers to a complex evolution of the entire industrial sector that includes technological advances in production equipment (i.e. Additive Manufacturing), smart finished products (IoT), data tools and analytics, involving activities and stakeholders at all levels. Therefore, companies need to completely redesign their business processes and models in order to achieve the important benefits disclosed by these new settings. Even though actual and potential advantages are remarkable, only a limited number of companies has already made rapid advances by developing high digital capabilities necessary to obtain a competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to explore this emerging trend through a case study carried out with an Italian company world leader in the food industry, aiming to shed light on opportunities and threats connected to digital transition.