Is a digital transformation framework enough for manufacturing smart products? The case of Small and Medium Enterprises

Companies, and especially manufacturers, are facing today a truly complex scenario, with technology developing at a fast speed and demanding a digital transformation to face the many challenges. The aim of this paper then is to assess the fitness of digital maturity models in their role of assisting manufacturers of smart products in their digital transformation journeys and propose a set of recommendations to improve the usability of the tool in this scenario. To achieve this, an analysis of a selection of seven maturity models is performed, applying several design principles to the specific case of manufacturers of smart products. According to the most relevant findings, the recommendations suggested for the models are related to the need for a wider scope for the tool, a prescriptive condition, and a broad business perspective in the definition of their dimensions. Validation of the applicability of the recommendations in the small and medium enterprises scenario is also presented through an illustration of the manufacturers of the Arve Valley.