Industry 4.0 implies lean manufacturing: Research activities in industry 4.0 function as enablers for lean manufacturing

Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management JIEM, 2016 – 9(3): 811-833 – Online ISSN: 2013-0953 – Print ISSN: 2013-8423 http://dx.doi.org/10.3926/jiem.1940 Industry 4.0 Implies Lean Manufacturing: Research Activities in Industry 4.0 Function as Enablers for Lean Manufacturing Adam Sanders , Chola Elangeswaran , Jens Wulfsberg Helmut-Schmidt-University, Institute of Production Engineering (Germany) , , Received: March 2016 Accepted: July 2016 Abstract: Purpose: Lean Manufacturing is widely regarded as a potential methodology to improve productivity and decrease costs in manufacturing organisations. The success of lean manufacturing demands consistent and conscious efforts from the organisation, and has to overcome several hindrances. Industry 4.0 makes a factory smart by applying advanced information and communication systems and future-oriented technologies. This paper analyses the incompletely perceived link between Industry 4.0 and lean manufacturing, and investigates whether Industry 4.0 is capable of implementing lean. Executing Industry 4.0 is a cost-intensive operation, and is met with reluctance from several manufacturers. This research also provides an important insight into manufacturers’ dilemma as to whether they can commit into Industry 4.0, considering the investment required and unperceived benefits. Design/methodology/approach: Lean manufacturing is first defined and different dimensions of lean are presented. Then Industry 4.0 is defined followed by representing its current status in Germany. The barriers for implementation of lean are analysed from the perspective of integration of resources. Literatures associated with Industry 4.0 are studied and suitable solution principles are identified to solve the above mentioned barriers of implementing lean. Findings: It is identified that researches and publications in the field of Industry 4.0 held answers to overcome the barriers of implementation of lean manufacturing. These potential solution -811- Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management – http://dx.doi.org/10.3926/jiem.1940 principles prove the hypothesis that Industry 4.0 is indeed capable of implementing lean. It uncovers the fact that committing into Industry 4.0 makes a factory lean besides being smart. Originality/value: Individual researches have been done in various technologies allied with Industry 4.0, but the potential to execute lean manufacturing was not completely perceived. This paper bridges the gap between these two realms, and identifies exactly which aspects of Industry 4.0 contribute towards respective dimensions of lean manufacturing. Keywords: production management, lean manufacturing, industry 4.0, cyber physical systems, internet of things 1. Introduction Manufacturing in the current century witnesses enormous shifts and changes from its original version. Ever since the evolution of the first industrial revolution, the sector has been growing in all its facets, acquiring more and more technologies in the process. With the western world employing automation and computer-integrated technologies to improve its manufacturing, the Japanese industries devised a customer-value focussed method of manufacturing called Lean Manufacturing. Toyota Motor Corporation successfully implemented lean manufacturing and showed remarkable increase in productivity and decrease in wastes in its firm. Since then, industries around the world have attempted to make their production factories lean to reap the associated benefits. Notable rewards have been reported by European firms through this effort, not only in manufacturing sectors, but also in service fields such as retail, healthcare, travel and financial services (Piercy & Rich, 2009). Germany's manufacturing is mainly driven by small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), many of which are family owned firms. These medium sized companies, of which some are world market leaders in their fields, employ lean manufacturing along with technical expertise to prosper as successful players in global trade (Venohr & Meyer, 2007). Nevertheless, the road towards making a factory lean has never been straightforward and some of the SMEs still struggle with implementing desired lean tools. Numerous challenges and roadblocks hinder the effective path to attaining lean. Several industries have tried in vain or only with partial success. Hence it is essential to find a route to solve these problems and aid the industries in a non-traditional and employee-friendly manner. And the answer comes in the name of Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is German Government's recent initiative to gain stronghold in global manufacturing. By advanced application of information and communication systems in manufacturing, the entire factory environment becomes smart and enables mass customisation. Many research activities -812- Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management – http://dx.doi.org/10.3926/jiem.1940 are carried out by academia and industry on the technologies and processes concerned with Industry 4.0. The link of these technologies towards various aspects of lean manufacturing is identified in our research. It is inferred that Industry 4.0 is equipped with high-end solutions which possess the necessary tools to implement lean. However, it is an inevitable fact that financial investment required for such high-end digitisation is quite intensive. So not all SMEs are enthusiastic to dive into Industry 4.0 (Schröder, Schlepphorst & Kay, 2015), and the question whether it is worth the effort always remains. The approach used in this paper answers a significant part of this question, and illustrates that lean manufacturing and Industry 4.0 are not mutually exclusive; they can be seamlessly integrated with each other for successful production management. This paper analyses the researches and publications concerned in the field of Industry 4.0, and identifies how they act as supporting factors for implementation of lean manufacturing. 2. Methodology The course of actions performed in this research is described as follows. Initially we carried out an extensive study in the field of lean manufacturing. Since various definitions and perceptions exist across different academia and industrial researchers, we formulated an appropriate definition for lean manufacturing and conceptualised into different dimension groups. Then we introduced the term Industry 4.0 and discussed its current status. The challenges factories face to implement lean due to lack of resources such as proper communication, monitoring, integration etc. are analysed according to these dimensions. Then literatures associated with Industry 4.0 are broadly studied and explored regarding their functionalities and outcomes. Independent researches in various fields concerned with Industry 4.0 hold the potential for solutions for the above mentioned barriers for lean implementation even if the primary focus of the research is usually another. We ext (...truncated)