Challenges for SMEs on their path to smart production

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are said to struggle with several challenges when transforming parts of their value chain to smart production with the means of digitalization. [1] Since SMEs are the backbone of our economy it is important to understand those challenges to cope with them accordingly. [2] This book chapter provides an overview of SME-specific digitalization challenges including possibly challenging SME characteristics and necessary prerequisites from a literature review as well as deeper insights about singular companies from the region of Brandenburg in Germany. Those insights are derived from semi-structured interviews with SME managers. None of the identified obstacles is a showstopper for our interviewees but some of them are more severe than others. This chapter contributes to the existing literature by showing an overview of challenges for SMEs when transforming their value chain to smart production. Additionally, we provide insights with less abstract depictions about the process of SMEs coping with those challenges. This chapter is of interest for SME managers when defining the transformation process of their own SME under consideration of the digitalization challenges. The overview, as well as the insights, help researchers defining their approaches for finding solutions from their perspective on realizing smart factories in SMEs