A Systematic Literature Review of Industry 4.0 Technologies within Medical Device Manufacturing

Abstract

Ever since the emergence of Industry 4.0 as the synonymous term for the fourth industrial revolution, its applications have been widely discussed and used in many business scenarios. This concept is derived from the advantages of internet and technology, and it describes the efficient synchronicity of humans and computers in smart factories. By leveraging big data analysis, machine learning and robotics, the end-to-end supply chain is optimized in many ways. However, these implementations are more challenging in heavily regulated fields, such as medical device manufacturing, as incorporating new technologies into factories is restricted by the regulations in place. Moreover, the production of medical devices requires an elaborate quality analysis process to assure the best possible outcome to the patient. Therefore, this article reflects on the benefits (features) and limitations (obstacles), in addition to the various smart manufacturing trends that could be implemented within the medical device manufacturing field by conducting a systematic literature review of 104 articles sourced from four digital libraries. Out of the 7 main themes and 270 unique applied technologies, 317 features and 117 unique obstacles were identified. Furthermore, the main findings include an overview of ways in which manufacturing could be improved and optimized within a regulated setting, such as medical device manufacturing.

Critical Infrastructures: Reliability, Resilience and Wastage

“…Whilst not part of the critical infrastructure classification in [1], homes (that is, residential properties) are also included in the investigation, as other works (for example, [83,84]) discuss the interlinkage of residential properties with critical infrastructures and, therefore, they form part of the discussion. As Figure 5 depicts, waste (27), energy (17), food (13) and water (8) are dominant trends within the studies. The lowest representation was ICT, Telecom and Homes with one article each.…”

“…In this investigation, a 5-year timeframe is considered to be appropriate due to the fastmoving pace of information technology, and this also aligns to other SLR works such as [27]. Table 1 details the list of keywords and a conceptual search query used for the Scopusbased article output.…”

IoT Health Devices: Exploring Security Risks in the Connected Landscape

“…The lack of accessibility may also cause data integrity, which can be used for altering data stored on IoTHDs [78,106]. Automation has boosted medical device manufacturing, providing many advantages in improving productivity while reducing unnecessary costs [109,110]. However, in medical device manufacturing, every component created with network capability or means of amplifying, dampening, or re-routing network communications creates new avenues of attacks [111].…”