Investigating the Integration of Industry 4.0 and Lean Principles on Supply Chain: A Multi-Perspective Systematic Literature Review

The development of digital technologies in all aspects of human life leads to increasing the necessity for investigating them in the Supply Chain (SC) as the main channel to provide products. Moreover, Lean principles, with the aim of reducing wastes, could be one of the main research streams in SC in recent years. Therefore, it is valuable to figure out the mutual effects of Lean principles and digital technologies as two growing areas in SC. Previous works did not pay attention to investigating this relationship at the SC level and were more focused on the production level. However, the present work addresses this issue by conducting a multi-perspective Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Additionally, in the present SLR, the impact of individual Industry 4.0 technologies in relation to Lean principles was investigated from various SC perspectives. The results reveal the necessity of studying single SC processes in Lean Digital SC. Moreover, the applicability of each technology should be illustrated to alleviate SC operational and organizational issues. The results provide useful insights about applying single digital technologies as well as a combination of them to each SC process to solve specific issues

Contribuição de Lean Thinking para a implementação da Indústria 4.0

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia IndustrialA presente dissertação é resultado de um projeto de investigação, no âmbito do 2° ano do Mestrado em Engenharia Industrial, cuja principal finalidade foi estudar a relação e a contribuição do Lean Thinking no contexto da implementação da Indústria 4.0. O Lean, que tem como um dos seus pilares o fator humano, por definição, desafiou com sucesso as práticas de produção em massa, proporcionando uma maior flexibilidade dos sistemas e processos de produção, resultando em produtos e cadeias de suprimentos mais “enxutos”, i.e., com menos desperdícios. Mais recentemente, surgiu a Indústria 4.0, termo utilizado pela primeira vez na Alemanha em 2011 e que se refere à 4ª revolução industrial. Este visa conectar os mundos físico/virtual na produção industrial e vem tornando-se cada dia mais popular com as inúmeras oportunidades e modelos de negócios que podem vir a consolidar-se através das novas tecnologias. Com tamanha automatização associada a Indústria 4.0, surgem questões quanto a interoperabilidade entre as duas abordagens e o papel do Lean nesta revolução industrial que está em andamento. Diante disto, realizou-se uma revisão sistemática da literatura como metodologia utilizada no presente estudo, de forma de responder às perguntas de investigação propostas e identificar o papel do Lean neste cenário. A revisão foi conduzida para o período de tempo de 2011 a 2018 e resultou num total de 26 artigos analisados, após aplicação dos critérios de exclusão e classificação inerentes à metodologia utilizada. Ficou claro que esta é uma área de pesquisa emergente, com a maioria dos estudos selecionados sendo publicados entre 2017 e 2018. Estes mostraram também que o Lean Thinking exerce efeito facilitador no âmbito da Indústria 4.0 e esta, por sua vez, facilita a implementação de ferramentas Lean, não tendo sido identificadas barreiras ou restrições significativas à integração destas duas abordagens. Por fim, de acordo com a estrutura proposta por este trabalho, foi possível identificar que alguns achados indicam que a integração de ambos os conceitos resulta em uma positiva sinergia beneficiando processos produtivos, modelos de negócios e contribuindo diretamente para alcançar algumas das metas de desenvolvimento sustentável definidas pela Organização das Nações Unidas.This dissertation is the result of a research project in the 2nd year of the Master's Degree in Industrial Engineering, whose main purpose was to study the relationship and contribution of Lean Thinking in the context of the implementation of Industry 4.0. Lean, that has the human factor as one of its pillars, by definition, has successfully challenged mass production practices and provided greater flexibility in production systems and processes, resulting in "leaner" products and supply chains, i.e. with less waste. More recently, Industry 4.0 has emerged, a term first used in Germany in 2011 referring to the 4th industrial revolution. It aims to connect the physical with virtual worlds in industrial production and has become increasingly popular with the many opportunities and business models that can be consolidated through new technologies. With such automation associated with Industry 4.0, questions arise about the interoperability between the two approaches and the role of the Lean in this ongoing industrial revolution. A systematic literature review was therefore carried out as the methodology used in the present study in order to answer the proposed research questions, as well as to identify the role of Lean in this scenario. The review was conducted for the period of 2011 to 2018. This resulted in a total of 26 articles being analysed, following the application of exclusion and classification criteria inherent to the chosen methodology. It is clear that this is an emerging research area, with most of the selected studies being published between 2017 and 2018. These studies also showed that Lean Thinking exerts a facilitative effect within the scope of Industry 4.0. This in turn, facilitates the implementation of Lean tools. As of yet, no significant barriers or constraints to the integration of these two approaches have been identified. Finally, according to the structure proposed by this study, it was possible to identify that some findings indicate that the integration of both concepts results in a positive synergy. This has benefits for production processes and business models, and directly contributes to the achievement of some of the sustainable development goals defined by the United Nations