How Industry 4.0 can enhance lean practices

Abstract

The global industrial landscape has deeply changed over the last few years and the Industry 4.0 concept has emerged, being enabled by successive disruptive innovations and technological development that have transformed manufacturing processes. This concept is being pointed out as the fourth industrial revolution that embraces a set of new technologies that are shaping the future manufacturing vision. However, Lean Production is a widely used manufacturing approach that brings several benefits to organizations. Despite the integration between Industry 4.0 and Lean Production is being researched in the recent years, the impacts that result from the implementation of new technologies in established lean practices is not clear. The purpose of this study that consists in a systematic literature review is assessing how these emerging disruptive technologies can enhance lean practices and analyse their impacts and benefits for organizations that are moving towards this new industrial paradigm.