Purpose The purpose of this paper is to aim at identifying the relationships between Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies and Lean Manufacturing (LM) practices. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review was conducted, in which 93 studies were analyzed according to their content and contextualization level. Findings In total, 9 I4.0 technologies and 14 LM practices were identified and categorized according to different levels of both value stream application and synergy. From the 126 pairwise relationships, 24 were classified as being of high synergy (e.g. relationship between Cyber-Physical Systems and value stream mapping), revealing the existence of a positive interaction between LPs and I4.0 technologies toward the achievement of a higher operational performance. Further, three future research opportunities were suggested: to validate the proposed synergies among LPs and I4.0 technologies; to distinguish the effects of relationships on all levels of flow; and to examine the effect of such relationships on operational performance. Originality/value With the emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the specificities on the relationship between LM and I4.0 still need further investigation. This paper provides a better understanding of existing literature related to I4.0, LM, and their relationship, as well as pointing out research gaps to encourage future works.

A constant evolution in the efficiency of production systems and government policies has enabled the control of the environmental impact of production activities and encouraged companies to develop strategies to achieve more sustainable operations. Despite this, more needs to be done to reduce the risks of globalised production activities. In this context, evidence suggests that Lean Manufacturing (LM) and Cleaner Production (CP) make a positive contribution to the environmental performance of organisations. However, very little has been reported in the scholarly literature regarding the convergence and divergence of these two approaches. This work therefore attempts to take advantage of the synergies of LM and CP by proposing a Lean Cleaner Production Benchmarking (LCPB) method to assess the practices and culture regarding the application of CP in companies. The method considers the management aspects of people, information, products, suppliers and customers, management and processes, as well as the LM practices that contribute to a more eco-efficient production. LCPB uses a methodology based on benchmarking that was applied to 16 Brazilian manufacturing companies in order to assess their practices and performances regarding CP. The method seeks to provide a diagnosis to verify whether CP is effectively carried out by the companies, and what their performances are regarding actions beneficial to the environment. The application of LM practices that contribute to CP was also evaluated through the proposed LCPB method. The paper contributes to the theory by proving further evidence of the compatibility and synergies of LM and CP. In addition, it proposes a novel method that enables the analysis of companies' practices and performances related to CP, assesses their actions associated with sustainability, and contributes to identifying points where there is a lack and difficulty regarding CP. The proposed method helps to relate LM and CP activities, indicating that companies that seek to apply LM concepts are those that present high CP practices and performance.

Manufacturing companies are striving hard to remain competitive hence, they rely on a number of resources to meet customers' expectations, among which cutting tools are included. This paper addresses the problems faced in the management of cutting tools activities. Production managers have highlighted the lack of procedures containing metrics and targets that would show them whether their company is able to perform an efficient management, and if it is capable of supporting the deployment process. In this context, this paper presents a novel Lean Environmental Benchmarking (LEB) method for performing a diagnosis of practices and performances to support the implementation of a cutting tool management strategy and/or the effective management of these assets. Strategic, technical and logistical aspects are addressed, particularly, with regard to management focused on lean manufacturing and environmental aspects. Field studies were performed in nine Brazilian companies in the metal-mechanical sector to validate the LEB method proposed. The LEB method helped the participant organisations clarify the various activities that involved the management of their cutting tools, while the field studies indicated that all nine organisations had a great concern regarding the preservations of the environment, and also an effective utilisation of resources spent for machining components.

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When used in pocket roughing, both the direction-parallel and the contour-parallel tool path strategies usually create critical cutting regions in corners and narrow slots, which can be problematic to machine. The utilization of a trochoidal tool path has been proposed recently in order to avoid these problems. In this work, a method for generating trochoidal tool paths for 2½D pocket milling using a medial axis transform is proposed. In order to achieve this goal, first the pocket and islands are represented as polygons, and the medial axis transform is calculated as a series of points. The points are then sorted and grouped by an algorithm that generates the trochoidal path whenever the desired radial depth of cut is attained. In the proposed method, machining time is reduced through a pixel-based simulation, adjusting the tool path to the remaining material. The tool path generation method allows the control of the maximum radial depth of cut, avoiding the momentary increments in radial depth of cut, since those increments are problematic when machining hard materials or when high speed machining. Also, a cutting tool selection and area segmentation method using different tool sizes are used.

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