## 2 A Method for Assessing the Maturity Level of Key Areas in Manufacturing Companies
### Aims, Objectives, and Structure of the Proposed Method  
The author developed a method that uses a five-point scale to evaluate the maturity of a manufacturing company's operations in six key areas, which include:  
* Automation of production processes--a key area of development that determines the possibility of the digitalization of production, as well as integration of production and management processes,
* Robotization of production processes--a key area of development for increasing the quality, reproducibility, productivity, and autonomy of manufacturing workstations, as well as the redeployment of employees to higher-value tasks,
* Digitization of intralogistics warehouse processes--a key area of development determining the ability to efficiently manage and optimize inventory levels, including inputs, finished products, equipment, and tools,
* Flexibility of production systems--a key area of development for achieving agility relies on improving internal processes such as dynamic path routing and increasing machine Overall Equipment Effectiveness ratios, as well as external processes such as responding quickly to market changes,
* Intralogistics of production processes (inter-station and inter-department transport)--a key development area for achieving agile automation in material and product flow streams,
* Integration of management, production, quality control, intralogistics, and warehousing systems--a key area of development for achieving Single Source of Truth data exchange status between all systems for managing and controlling company processes. Key areas of the maturity level assessment method for manufacturing companies are illustrated in Figure 3.  
Figure 4 shows a matrix of the manufacturing company's key areas and maturity levels. The rows correspond to the current and target maturity levels, while the columns represent the individual key areas. Figure 3: Key areas of the maturity level assessment method: ML1–ML5—maturity levels in a specific key area. Guidelines and recommendations were defined for each maturity level for all the areas to identify current and target states, whereby it specified:  
* Current state--a set of characteristics defining the minimum requirements of a selected key area, divided into categories representing the characteristics of a specific maturity level,
* Advantages--three independent sub-areas (machinery, infrastructure, and equipment, human resources; processes) defining strengths in each maturity level of a specific key area,  
Figure 4: Matrix of key areas and maturity levels of the manufacturing company. * Disadvantages--three independent sub-areas (machinery, infrastructure, and equipment; human resources; processes) defining weaknesses in each maturity level of a specific key area,
* Growth opportunities--a set of necessary directions to identify technological deficiencies (machinery sub-area), skills gaps (human resources sub-area), and process optimization (processes sub-area),
* Recommendations--recommendations including the implementation of measures to achieve a higher level of maturity. The method involves selecting a specific key area's current and target states. Defining the initial and target states requires meeting the requirements of lower maturity levels. The key areas are closely interlinked and intersect at the development planning and implementation stages. While it is possible to evaluate a company's level of maturity in a specific area that is considered a priority, implementing the recommendations suggested to reach the target state will always increase the overall maturity level. The maturity level assessment is conducted separately in the specified key areas. The area chosen for analysis depends on personal preferences and current development needs. The first step is to assess the compatibility of the solutions used with the elements in the current state scope to identify the initial level of maturity. As shown in Table 1, each of the five maturity levels within a specific key area is rated on a five-point implementation scale.