The interrelation between Industry 4.0 and lean production: an empirical study on European manufacturers

Abstract

This study aims at examining the impact of the interrelation between Industry 4.0 technologies implementation and the adoption of Lean Production (LP) practices on the improvement level of manufacturers' operational performance. Further, it investigates how this connection might occur under the effect of four contextual factors deemed as influential by previous literature, such as company size, LP implementation experience, type of ownership and business operating model. To achieve that, we carried out a survey with 108 European manufacturers that have been implementing LP practices and already started to approach Industry 4.0 technologies. The collected data was analyzed through multivariate techniques. Results underpin the idea of a wide applicability of both approaches, regardless of the contextual factors involved. Further, findings evidence that higher adoption levels of Industry 4.0 may be easier to achieve when LP practices are extensively implemented in the company. In opposition, when processes are not robustly designed and continuous improvement practices are not established, companies may not be ready on adopting novel technologies either. By comprehending that Industry 4.0 technologies are highly related to LP practices, disregarding the context, managers from EU manufacturers can address the implementation of both approaches in a more assertive way.

Evaluating the Degree of Uncertainty of Research Activities in Industry 4.0

“…The cloud is a scientific method [37][38][39][40][41]. The evaluation grid is characterized by the decomposition of the different variables (e.g., technology [1,17,34,45,47,51,55]) divided into quartiles, which allows for the detection of the evolution of the project for each of its components and for the outline of an evaluation grid. The line moves according to the progressive degrees of uncertainty.…”

“…Moreover, we can identify distinct systems that are potentially related to Industry 4.0 and its surroundings due to the fact of their importance and probability of occurrence. Industry 4.0 must be understood as a priority for Europe by administrations and policy makers, who must advocate and create an "infrastructure" for promoting entrepreneurship [17,47,51,72].…”

“…The term "Industry 4.0" is commonly used to identify the technological transformation that is currently taking place in all domains of the economy: production, consumption, transport, and communications [42][43][44][45][46]. Such transformation is driven by the interlacing of digitization (with devices and processes capable of transmitting and processing huge masses of data) and automation (the availability of machines capable of carrying out tasks of medium-high complexity) [17,47]. The transition to Industry 4.0 is characterized by a dual nature: on the one hand, great opportunities associated with the creation of new wealth and greater well-being, through productivity gains; the satisfaction of new needs, through new products or new process; and the greater efficiency of production processes, thanks to the implementation of process innovations [48,49].…”

Trends of Digital Transformation in the Shipbuilding Sector

“…Some studies suggest that lean manufacturing is a mediator of their relationship [39,40], while other suggests that Industry 4.0 is a moderator [41]. Others investigate their supportive effects without hypothesizing which of the two is the moderator [42,43], and even other studies emphasized the interaction between them in many contexts, depending on industry and company size [44].…”

Lean manufacturing as a tool for increasing labor productivity at the enterprise

“…The association between Industry 4.0 and LP has been increasingly highlighted in operations management research [12,13]. Over the past few years, researchers and practitioners have started to investigate how both approaches, when implemented together within companies, can raise operational and financial performances to a significantly higher level [12, p.3963].…”