Literature review on the ‘smart factory’ concept using bibliometric tools

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to depict a landscape of the scientific literature on the concept of the ‘Smart Factory’, which in recent years is gaining more and more attention from academics and practitioners because of significant innovations in the production systems within the manufacturing sector. To achieve this objective, a dynamic methodology called ‘Systematic Literature Network Analysis (SLNA)’ has been applied. This methodology combines the Systematic Literature Review approach with the analysis of bibliographic networks. The adopted methodology allows complementing traditional content-based literature reviews by extracting quantitative information from bibliographic networks to detect emerging topics, and by revealing the dynamic evolution of the scientific production of a discipline. This dynamic analysis allowed highlighting research directions and critical areas for the development of the ‘Smart Factory’. At the same time, it offers insights on the fields on which companies, associations, politicians and technology providers need to focus in order to allow a real transition towards the implementation of large-scale Smart Factory.