Abstract
Against the background of increasing international competition and locational factor cost disadvantages small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need to constantly work on improving their productivity. However, due to the increasing market demand for higher product and service personalization most enterprises have to deal with the dilemma of the need to increase automation and to decrease batch sizes at the same time. The term "Industry 4.0" is currently discussed as a vision in research and industry which promises to resolve this contradiction. However, most SMEs are still quite skeptical regarding this vision; in particular, many of them doubt the economic benefits. This paper aims to show with the practical example of a medium-sized company that industry 4.0 is not accessible only for large high-tech-enterprises. However, the implementation must be gradual along a clearly defined strategy