Industrial Internet is one of the most talking topics in the recent years in both practical implications and literature reviews being a new paradigm for almost all industry sectors. It has been defined as the next industrial revolution since it opens a new and wide range of possibilities to the actual industry. This is possi-ble through the latest advancements and trends of some key technologies such as sensors, actuators, RFID, communication technologies, cloud computing and big data analytics. Industrial Internet is supposed to revolutionize the business and the business models through new valuable information that was not availa-ble before due to the new huge amounts of accurate data that can be collected out of the machines, devices, processes and products.
This thesis aims to develop a better understanding of the impact of the major Industrial Internet technologies to the business and business models of mid-sized production line manufacturers. The current study started with a literature review, investigating the Industrial Internet concept and background as well as some other basic related concepts such as IoT, Industry 4.0, CPS and Smart Manufacturing. The differences between them were established and the oppor-tunities and risks related to Industrial Internet among the literature were identi-fied. The key Industrial Internet technologies were reviewed and categorized, and the basic functionalities, capabilities and optimization levels were defined. Finally, the BM literature was also reviewed and the Business Model Canvas framework was selected in order to carry out the last part of the interviews re-lated to the impact of data and information to the business model components. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with three mid-sized pro-duction line manufacturers’ representatives. The interview structure was divided into three parts: risks and opportunities perception, perceived impact to the business model components and role of the data and information in the busi-ness and industry.
The results showed that Industrial Internet is perceived to have a big impact in the business and business model components and also that the opportunities of it, seem to be clearer that the risks which can be translated into the willingness of the companies to adopt Industrial Internet and to start offering innovative business models.
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