DigiAudit – CZ Support for Industry Digital Transformation
Lack of quality employees is an evergreen difficulty that has been plaguing Czech industrial companies for many years. Even a series of crises has not quenched their hunger for technical talents and the lack of qualified workers is consistently identified by the directors of industrial companies as the biggest obstacle to their development. Manufacturing firms are also facing falling demand from their customers and profits are being squeezed by the strong Czech crown and rising interest rates.
In the wake of these problems and the related global trend of the transition to a green and digital economy, the National Centre of Industry 4.0 (NCI4.0) at the Czech Technical University in Prague decided to respond and develop a methodology - DigiAudit - to measure the digital maturity of companies.
According to an analysis of Czech industry by the National Centre of Industry 4.0, the vast majority of companies (96 %) in the Czechia quote that with the higher standard of digitalization they would surmount the series of current world crises of the last years. The statistics also indicate that 65 % of companies will invest more in new technologies with an average increase of 14 % annual rate of total investment. The majority of SMEs (75 %) would like to digitise more, but lack finance (25 %) and a suitable technology supplier (54 %).
NCP 4.0 wants to help companies find the best solution for their conditions and avoid unnecessary investments in both time and money, which often lead to the reluctance of SMEs to further invest in digital innovation.
The methodology is carried out through a questionnaire, based on structured interviews with the company's management on specific areas to enable the evaluator to gain a detailed overview of the company's processes relevant to the investigation. The questionnaire is designed to be variable and flexible for different types of SMEs and their types of production, with the possibility to analyse in great detail the activities in the relevant areas of the SME in question. This collected information is further evaluated by a unique algorithm.
The DigiAudit is designed to assess the current state of the company digital maturity and offer the optimal solution for the company so that the smallest possible investment in time and money will result in the greatest possible increase in the company's competitiveness by raising its digital level. At the same time, companies will learn how much the new solution will cost, what will be its return and economic benefit for the future operation of the company.
The unique methodology was developed by the National Centre for Industry 4.0 in cooperation with academic and corporate partners, both Czech and foreign. Academic technologists from Czech and foreign universities, expert consultants who have extensive professional experience from grant programmes for the European Commission within the EIT-Manufacturing projects, as well as employees of professional partners dealing with digitalisation in practice, also participated in the compilation of the expert questionnaire together with NCI 4.0.
The DigiAudit methodology is compiled on the basis of our experience from professional programs abroad:
- EIT-Manufacturing - especially the Digital Transformation in RIS Countries program
- Politecnico di Milano: DREAMY
- Fraunhofer Austria Research GmbH: Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index
- University of Warwick: Industry 4.0 Readiness assessment
- Northern Netherlands: Region of Smart Factories
- IMPULSE: Industry 4.0 Readiness
- Singapore Economic Development Board: The Singapore Smart Industry Readiness Index - LEAD Innovation Thinking Framework
Plus academic technological expertise of experts from CIIRC, CTU, and other Czech technical universities that are NCP 4.0 partners, and practical experience of experts from major Czech and foreign technology companies, NCP 4.0 partners (further information).
More than 200 Czech companies have already passed the independent DigiAudit survey since 2020. The Centre's independent experts can also recommend to companies participating in DigiAudit the selection of a suitable supplier of technological innovations and oversee the correct implementation of the solution.
A Digital Maturity Questionnaire is the basis for structured interviews with the management of the company and guided discussion in the form of user scenarios. It introduces the assessor to specific areas of the companies (a comprehensive range of all processes at horizontal and vertical level) and sets the stage for additional questions. It is designed to go into expert depth in areas that are important to the company and, conversely, to skip those areas that are not of interest or relevant to the company's nature. It is thus very variable and flexible for different types of SMEs and their types of production, with the possibility to analyse the activities of a given SME in great detail.
