Lean Production and Industry 4.0 integration: how Lean Automation is emerging in manufacturing industry

ABSTRACT

Despite its potentialities, Lean Automation (LA) has not attracted attention for over two decades. However, due to the new opportunities offered by Industry 4.0 technologies, LA revives expectations and enthusiasm. This paper aims to test empirically the association of LA, in the form of integration of Lean practices and Industry 4.0 technologies, and operational performance. The paper used a rigorous, multi-stage empirical method and data from a set of more than 200 manufacturing firms; one representative from each of the studied companies filled in a survey on Lean practices and Industry 4.0 technology bundles, with productivity, delivery, inventory, quality as performance indicators. The extensive survey results helped in identifying underlying components of LA: one focuses on operational stability and includes practices and technologies supporting efficiency along the supply chain; the other focuses on streamlining the flow, on fastening the process to reach the customer. Moreover, it demonstrates the positive correlation between LA and operational performance. Besides its contribution to the body of knowledge on LA, this research paves the base of improving academics and practitioners understanding of the integration of new technologies with Lean Production systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Lean Automation
• Industry 4.0
• Lean Production
• digitalisation
• operational performance
• survey

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matteo Rossini

Matteo Rossini is a Senior Researcher and Adjunct Professor of Operations Management at Politecnico di Milano. His research field focuses on continuous improvement approaches and operations strategy. He published several scientific articles in international academic journals. He is a passionate Lean coach for several Italian SME companies and an active member of Lean Excellence Centre, research group of School of Management of Politecnico di Milano dedicated to develop collaboration with the industry.

Federica Costa

Federica Costa is a Post-Doc Researcher at the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering of Politecnico di Milano, and Lecturer in Operations Management and Industrial Management courses at M.Sc. level at Politecnico di Milano. Her field of research focuses on Production Planning and Control and Lean Management, publishing several articles in high-ranked international journals. She is a Senior Consultant of Lean Excellence Centre, the observatory of Politecnico di Milano, where she was involved in many consultancy and research project for manufacturing and service companies.

Guilherme Luz Tortorella

Guilherme Luz Tortorella is an Associate Professor of the Department of Systems and Production Engineering of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil. He is the Head of Research of the Productivity and Continuous Improvement Lab and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Lean Systems. He is one of the founders of the Brazilian Conference on Lean Systems and has more than 18 years with practical and academic experience with manufacturing and operations management.

Alessia Valvo

Alessia Valvo is a Research Fellow of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering of the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. She is one of the Operations and Lean Engineer of Lean Excellence Centre of Politecnico di Milano and a Coach Member of the course Industrial Management Lab.

Alberto Portioli-Staudacher

Alberto Portioli Staudacher Full Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Politecnico di Milano, Member of the European Association of Industrial Management, Director of the Lean Excellence Center. For 4 mandates, he was a Member of the Departmental Council, for 2 mandates Coordinator of the Management Engineering Course. He has been responsible for numerous research and consultancy projects for private companies and public administrations, such as IVECO, Banca Sella, S. Anna Como Hospital, Stanley, STMicroelectronics, San Raffaele Milano Hospital, Municipality of Milan. He has published 4 books and over 120 articles.