Industry 4.0 in Latin America: Countries and Institutions with the Greatest Innovation and Global Impact

Abstract

Industry 4.0 (i4.0) is one of the fields of knowledge that is most extensively researched recently and whose definition is the most controversial, and Latin America (LatAm) is no exception. Identifying the LatAm countries and institutions with the highest degree of innovation and global impact in the i4.0 field. New citation micro-topics were used to identify the thematic domain: 4.224.1040 Industry 4.0. Difference indicators were extracted from Web of Science, Journal Citation Reports and especially Incites. Broadly speaking, the LatAm effort rate in i4.0 is high, as well as its global impact. The main countries are, in decreasing order, Brazil and Mexico. These countries show a high number of industry collaborations, and Brazil boasts many patent citations. Spain is a key partner of Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Cuba and Ecuador. The most prominent institutions are the Monterrey Institute of Technology (Tecnológico de Monterrey) and the University of Rio Grande do Sul (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS). The former specializes in engineering and smart manufacturing systems and the latter in ICT (cloud computing, IoT, and big data, among others).

Technological Migration from I3.0 to I4.0 Applying Concurrent Engineering and Adapted Agile Management Methodologies

“…The adoption level of smart technologies that accelerate Industry 4.0 remains at a foundation stage in the South African manufacturing industry overall [6]. Fortunately, Latin America has a high effort rate in Industry 4.0, with Brazil and Mexico being the main leading countries [7]. According to a whitepaper, there is a growing Industry 4.0 maturity level in Mexican manufacturing companies [8].…”