Evaluation of the Relation between Lean Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, and Sustainability

Abstract

Nowadays, Lean Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, and Sustainability are important concerns for the companies and in a general way for the society, principally, the influence of the two production philosophies, Lean Manufacturing and Industry 4.0, in the three main pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social. According to the literature review done in this work, these relations are not well known and are dispersed by different sustainability’s criteria. To address this gap, this research proposes a structural equation model, with six hypotheses, to quantitatively measure the effects of Lean Manufacturing and Industry 4.0, in Sustainability. To statistically validate such hypotheses, we collected 252 valid questionnaires from industrial companies of Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain). Results show that: (1) it is not conclusive that Lean Manufacturing is correlated with any of the sustainability pillars; and (2) Industry 4.0 shows a strong correlation with the three sustainability pillars. These results can contribute as an important decision support for the industrial companies and its stakeholders, even because not all the results are in line with other opinions and studies.

Digitalization: An Opportunity for Contributing to Sustainability From Knowledge Creation

“…This is the case of increasing the process knowledge about the location of item sets, which, from the initial trials, allowed to reduce by 3% the items to be sent and not finally loaded into the truck, which avoided unwanted additional delivery processes but, even better, reduced 12% the variability for truck loading duration. This result is aligned with the literature that inter-relate Industry 4.0 and sustainability improvement, which has shown a strong correlation between Industry 4.0 and the three dimensions of sustainability: Economic, environmental and social [93]. However, the figures obtained based only on the initial step of knowledge formalization are promising.…”

“…Therefore, as depicted in Figure 7, the bigger the focus in lean management, the larger the environmental improvement, even though the relationship is not direct. In fact, that relation is rejected by the same authors that support Industry 4.0 positive link with sustainability [93]. The manufacturing case shows how intra-organizational knowledge sharing, supported by the digitalization of the work environment, could help to improve company operations' sustainability, in alignment with previously cited literature, which identified sustainability as one of the main benefits of industry digitalization [19,20] In addition to the knowledge gained and the development carried out to estimate the stress of the operators based on the minute monitoring of heart rate and blood pressures, there was an interesting demand from 75% of the crane operators, who requested to have access to their data.…”

How do Partners Benefit from IT Use in Supply-Chain Management: An Empirical Study of Taiwan’s Bicycle Industry

“…According to Beier et al [27], and Kiron and Unruh [28], Industry 4.0 is really an enabler of sustainable development, but the convergence of digital transformation and sustainability remains underdeveloped. Recently, a lot of studies have identified several interlinks between Industry 4.0 technologies and sustainable operations, such as: discussing the influence of sustainable business models [29], exploring the potential impact, opportunities and challenges to sustainable development [30][31][32][33][34], enabling of sustainability [35][36][37], potentially contributing sustainable value creation [38], the effects on lean manufacturing practices for sustainable organizations [39,40], and presenting the dependence power of the determinants for Industry 4.0 implication in the sustainability context [41]. According to Vaio and Varriale [42], by adopting a sustainable supply-chain management (SSCM) perspective, firms tend to focus much more on searching for transparent information, coordination, integration, and effective sustainable practices, thus considering Industry 4.0 and its social, environmental, and economic impact.…”

Sustainability Transition in Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing with the Triple-Layered Business Model Canvas

“…Furthermore, the paper explores the role and importance of industry 4.0 in the sustainable transition of enterprises. This topic has also been extensively covered in the literature, with emphasis on the advantages offered by industry 4.0 and the possible barriers that companies face when introducing these technologies [36,41,44,45,71]. Despite numerous contributions to sustainable business model innovation and industry 4.0, there are still few papers that provide a visual representation of a sustainable business model within a manufacturing context.…”

“…In specific, industry 4.0 offers opportunities both in environmental terms by increasing the efficiency of the production process and in social terms, for instance by improving working time models and increasing employee satisfaction and productivity [43]. Other environmental advantages of industry 4.0 implementation are related to waste reduction, a decrease in resource consumption and energy requirements and an increase of circular economy practices [44]. The intertwining of industry 4.0 and sustainability must be reflected within a strategic business model context, which can no longer be limited to considerations of economic factors but must also include environmental and social factors, in line with the Triple Bottom Line of sustainability [45].…”