Sailing through a digital and resilient shipbuilding supply chain: An empirical investigation

Supply chain digitalisation plays a critical role for companies operating in engineering-to-order industries, striving to increase their competitiveness and profitability. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in the shipbuilding sector and how they affect the supply chain resilience capabilities drawing on the resource-based view theory and dynamic capabilities. A multiple case study was conducted, and eleven Italian companies belonging to different levels of the shipbuilding supply chain were interviewed. The results show that the main interest reserved for integrating resilience capabilities and innovative technologies is to enhance market position, knowledge and information sharing, and supply chain design and integration. Finally, this contribution can support companies, policymakers, and researchers in identifying and implementing specific digitisation pathways for shipbuilding companies. In addition, this contribution can support the identification of policy measures for the industry with a focus on digitisation and collaboration with universities and research centres, that are crucial aspects for engineering to order industries, including shipbuilding.