Technologies and Trends Leading the Digital Transformation: An Aerospace Case Study

In the Industry 4.0 framework, manufacturing companies often fail in investing on priority technologies risking to not fully exploit their value. Considering the limitation of both human and financial resources, due also to the Covid-19 pandemic, they need to accurately identify the right directions of investment. Particularly, aerospace manufacturers need to address their resources for resetting their competitive advantage. The paper aims to explore both trends and technologies that are shaping the engineering field of manufacturing industries. Specifically, an aerospace company case study is carried out to qualitatively explore current use, preferences and insights for the near future. Twenty-two interviews were executed with first- and second-level profiles of the aerospace company. Findings have been organized in a comprehensive framework and ranked for leading future research activities and internal assessments. Among the most important technologies, the IoT and the consequent data management are identified as some important key drivers leading the digital transformation of the aerospace industry. Both practical and theoretical implications are provided.