Lean Industry 4.0: Past, present, and future

Abstract

This paper employs a real-time, open-question qualitative survey method to investigate the past, present, and future of the Lean Industry 4.0 field. A major trend is found in researchers moving from technological backgrounds such as engineering, or other STEM subjects, into more socio-technical departments and developing interests in wider areas such as people, supply chain, and sustainability. A holistic perspective of the field is presented including a call to commonise the researcher-favored term “Lean Industry 4.0.” An inclusive and detailed definition of Lean Industry 4.0 takes into account the different survey responses. A wide range of future research gaps is identified within the context of a first-of-its-type future research framework.

Keywords:

• Industry 4.0
• Lean
• Lean Industry 4.0
• research gaps

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the contributors to our survey: Lara Agostini, Clinton Aigbavboa, Anabela Carvalho Alves, Cherrafi Anass, Jiju Antony, Nor Aziati, Reza Vatankhah Barenji, Luís Barreto, Amine Belhadi, Massimo Bertolini, Arijit Bhattacharya, Robert Boute, Rodrigo Caiado, Somnath Chattopadhyaya, Andrea Chiarini, Angelo Corallo, Pamela Danese, Rodolfo de Castro, Krisztina Demeter, Fernando Deschamps, José Dinis-Carvalho, Selim Erol, Hamed Fazlollahtabar, Luis Pinto Ferreira, Diego de CastroFettermann, Paolo Gaiardelli, Moacir Godinho Filho, Vicente A. González, Norbert Gronau, Abid Haleem, Farook Hamzeh, Rodrigo F. Herrera, Peter Hines, Matthias Holweg, Remy Houssin, George Q. Huang, Anet Režek Jambrak, Anbesh Jamwal, Kittisak Jermsittiparsert, Sachin Kamble, Sharfuddin Khan, Muztoba Ahmad Khan, Kaushik Kumar, Maneesh Kumar, Simonov Kusi-Sarpong, Zoubeir Lafhaj, Chi Hieu Le, Yun Li, Juan Manuel Maqueira Marín, Giuliano Marodin, Dominik Matt, Sameer Mittal, Alexandre Moeuf, Josefa Mula, Daniel Luiz De Mattos Nascimento, Torbjorn Netland, Jorge Oliveira, Eugenio Oñate, Guido Orzes, Regina Negri Pagani, Paulo Peças, Peter Plapper, Daryl Powell, Qinglin Qi, Erwin Rauch, David Romero, Christoph Roser, José Carlos Sá, Joseph Sarkis, Claudio Sassanelli, Tarcisio Abreu Saurin, Luiz Felipe Scavarda, Francisco Silva, Cecilia Silvestri, Michael Sony, Robert Sroufe, Christopher S. Tang, Matthias Thurer, Guilherme Tortorella, Bruno Vallespir, S Vinodh, Torgeir Welo, Herwig Winkler, J “Hans Wortmann, Thorsten Wuest, Magdalena Wyrwicka, and Yong Yin.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figure 1. Research Stages.

Figure 2. Helicopter Clustering of Researcher Google Scholar Primary Classifications Interests, n = 300.

Figure 3. A Framework for Future Lean Industry 4.0 Research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter Hines

Professor Peter Hines is the Co-Founder of the Lean Enterprise Research Center at Cardiff Business School. LERC grew to be the largest academic research in lean globally. He has undertaken extensive research into Lean and written or co-written over 50 papers including two of the five most cited on lean as well twelve books including Shingo Prize-winning books “Staying Lean,” and “Creating a Lean & Green Business System.” His most recent book “The Essence of Excellence” was published in January 2019 and won a Shingo Publication Award. Professor Hines now runs the Enterprise Excellent Network providing European-based forms with on-site benchmarking, learning and networking opportunities. He also continues his academic links and is a Visiting Professor at South East Technological University, Ireland and Faculty Fellow with The Shingo Institute at Utah State University.

Guilherme Luz Tortorella

Dr. Guilherme Tortorella has more than 12 years of experience as a Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement Manager in the automotive industry, having worked in sites in Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, the UK and USA. Additionally, he has worked as an Industry Consultant for 7 years. With more than 180 journal articles published, 2 books, and 15 book chapters, his research is mainly focused on Operations Management, more specifically on Lean Management, Industry 4.0, and Supply Chain Management. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Lean Systems, and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, Production Journal, and Operations Management Research Journal.

Jiju Antony

Professor Jiju Antony is recognized worldwide as a leader in Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology for achieving and sustaining operational excellence. He is a Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and certified LSS Master Black Belt in the department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi. He has a proven track record for conducting internationally leading research in the field of Quality Management, Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence. Professor Antony has authored over 500 journal, conference and white papers and 12 textbooks. He has published over 300 papers on Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma topics and is considered to be one of the highest in the world for the number of Six Sigma publications. He has an h-index of 89 according to Google Scholar with a total of over 30000 citations on quality management and operational excellence topics, the highest in the world. He is currently serving as the Editor of the International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, Editor of the International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, Associate Editor of the TQM and Business Excellence Journal, Associate Editor of TQM Journal (Emerald) and Associate Editor of Quality in Education (ASQ). He is serving on the Editorial Board of eight other international journals. Professor Antony is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, UK; Fellow of the Chartered Quality Institute, UK; Fellow of the Institute of Operations Management, UK; Fellow of the American Society for Quality, Fellow of the International Lean Six Sigma Institute and Fellow of the Institute of Six Sigma Professionals. He has been elected to the International Academy of Quality as an Academician last year, the first one ever elected from Scotland and fourth from the UK. He has recently won the lifetime achievement award for his contribution to the field of Lean Six Sigma research from the International Lean Six Sigma Institute and Outstanding Contribution to quality management practice from the leading professional-quality body in the UK (Chartered Quality Institute). He has won Walter Mazing Book Prize from the International Academy of Quality, Crosby Medal from the American Society for Quality and Book Award 2022 from the International Lean Six Sigma Institute, UK for his book entitled “Ten Commandments of Lean Six Sigma” published by the Emerald Publishers.

David Romero

Professor Dr. David Romero is a Senior Research Scientist and Scientific Project Manager at the Center for Innovation in Design and Technology of the Tecnológico de Monterrey University in Mexico, as well as a National Academia Representative and Coach for the Regional Secretariat of Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Mexico. His research interests include: Circular Manufacturing, Service Engineering and Product-Service Systems, Cyber-Physical Systems & Human Systems, Advanced Production Management Systems, Green Virtual Enterprises, and Technology and Engineering Management. He is a member of the Society of Collaborative Networks, the IFAC TC5.3 on Enterprise Integration and Networking, the IFIP WG5.7 on Advances in Production Management Systems, the IFIP WG5.12 on Architectures for Enterprise Integration, the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society, and the IEEE Internet of Things Community. Furthermore, he is an Agenda Contributor at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Council on “Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains,” and a World Manufacturing Forum (WMF) Ambassador. He has published more than 150 journal and international conference articles and serves on different editorial and scientific committees and advisory boards in academia, industry, and government in the disciplines of business and industrial engineering. Nowadays is focused on promoting the concepts of the “Operator 4.0” and “Digital Lean Manufacturing”; the father of both terms.