Lean manual assembly 4.0: A systematic review

In a demand context of mass customization, shifting towards the mass personalization of products, assembly operations face the trade-off between highly productive automated systems and flexible manual operators. Novel digital technologies—conceptualized as Industry 4.0—suggest the possibility of simultaneously achieving superior productivity and flexibility. This article aims to address how Industry 4.0 technologies could improve the productivity, flexibility and quality of assembly operations. A systematic literature review was carried out, including 234 peer-reviewed articles from 2010–2020. As a result, the analysis was structured addressing four sets of research questions regarding (1) assembly for mass customization; (2) Industry 4.0 and performance evaluation; (3) Lean production as a starting point for smart factories, and (4) the implications of Industry 4.0 for people in assembly operations. It was found that mass customization brings great complexity that needs to be addressed at different levels from a holistic point of view; that Industry 4.0 offers powerful tools to achieve superior productivity and flexibility in assembly; that Lean is a great starting point for implementing such changes; and that people need to be considered central to Assembly 4.0. Developing methodologies for implementing Industry 4.0 to achieve specific business goals remains an open research topic

Active learning based laboratory towards engineering education 4.0

Universities have a relevant and essential key role to ensure knowledge and development of competencies in the current fourth industrial revolution called Industry 4.0. The Industry 4.0 promotes a set of digital technologies to allow the convergence between the information technology and the operation technology towards smarter factories. Under such new framework, multiple initiatives are being carried out worldwide as response of such evolution, particularly, from the engineering education point of view. In this regard, this paper introduces the initiative that is being carried out at the Technical University of Catalonia, Spain, called Industry 4.0 Technologies Laboratory, I4Tech Lab. The I4Tech laboratory represents a technological environment for the academic, research and industrial promotion of related technologies. First, in this work, some of the main aspects considered in the definition of the so called engineering education 4.0 are discussed. Next, the proposed laboratory architecture, objectives as well as considered technologies are explained. Finally, the basis of the proposed academic method supported by an active learning approach is presented.Postprint (published version

Technology enablers for the implementation of Industry 4.0 to traditional manufacturing sectors: A review

The traditional manufacturing sectors (footwear, textiles and clothing, furniture and toys, among others) are based on small and medium enterprises with limited capacity on investing in modern production technologies. Although these sectors rely heavily on product customization and short manufacturing cycles, they are still not able to take full advantage of the fourth industrial revolution. Industry 4.0 surfaced to address the current challenges of shorter product life-cycles, highly customized products and stiff global competition. The new manufacturing paradigm supports the development of modular factory structures within a computerized Internet of Things environment. With Industry 4.0, rigid planning and production processes can be revolutionized. However, the computerization of manufacturing has a high degree of complexity and its implementation tends to be expensive, which goes against the reality of SMEs that power the traditional sectors. This paper reviews the main scientific-technological advances that have been developed in recent years in traditional sectors with the aim of facilitating the transition to the new industry standard.This research was supported by the Spanish Research Agency (AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the project CloudDriver4Industry TIN2017-89266-R

The potential of additive manufacturing in the smart factory industrial 4.0: A review

Additive manufacturing (AM) or three-dimensional (3D) printing has introduced a novel production method in design, manufacturing, and distribution to end-users. This technology has provided great freedom in design for creating complex components, highly customizable products, and efficient waste minimization. The last industrial revolution, namely industry 4.0, employs the integration of smart manufacturing systems and developed information technologies. Accordingly, AM plays a principal role in industry 4.0 thanks to numerous benefits, such as time and material saving, rapid prototyping, high efficiency, and decentralized production methods. This review paper is to organize a comprehensive study on AM technology and present the latest achievements and industrial applications. Besides that, this paper investigates the sustainability dimensions of the AM process and the added values in economic, social, and environment sections. Finally, the paper concludes by pointing out the future trend of AM in technology, applications, and materials aspects that have the potential to come up with new ideas for the future of AM explorations

Design choices for next-generation IIoT-connected MES/MOM:An empirical study on smart factories

The role of enterprise information systems is becoming increasingly crucial for improving customer responsiveness in the manufacturing industry. However, manufacturers engaged in mass customization are currently facing challenges related to implementing Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) concepts of Industry 4.0 in order to increase responsiveness. In this article, we apply the findings from a two-year design science study to establish the role of manufacturing execution systems/manufacturing operations management (MES/MOM) in an IIoT-enabled brownfield manufacturing enterprise. We also present design recommendations for developing next-generation MES/MOM as a strong core to make factories smart and responsive. First, we analyze the architectural design challenges of MES/MOM in IIoT through a selective literature review. We then present an exploratory case study in which we implement our homegrown MES/MOM data model design based on ISA 95 in Aalborg University's Smart Production Lab, which is a reconfigurable cyber-physical production system. This was achieved through the use of a custom module for the open-source Odoo ERP platform (mainly version 14). Finally, we enrich our case study with three industrial design demonstrators and combine the findings with a quality function deployment (QFD) method to determine design requirements for next-generation IIoT-connected MES/MOM. The results from our QFD analysis indicate that interoperability is the most important characteristic when designing a responsive smart factory, with the highest relative importance of 31% of the eight characteristics we studied

Raising new opportunities for the Next Economy by exploring variable user needs for Computational Co-Design

Digital Fabrication promises to revolutionize manufacturing, bringing both economic, social and environmental benefits. Combined with Computational CoDesign it can raise the creative potential of both designers and users. However, today the productive use of Digital Fabrication and Computational Design requires significant effort and specialised know-how, so valorising these practices calls for the identification of the application fields that benefit the most from them. This paper presents a tool for helping the discovery of design opportunities across comprehensive, ramified lists of product categories, where designers can identify possible points of intervention. The web-based tool allows the rapid evaluation of numerous product categories according to an extendable set of factors and inspiring questions related to the necessity of personalization, aiming to stimulate designers to consider unexpected frontiers of innovation. Beyond the scope of the research project, this tool has the potential to assist designers in finding applications also for other emerging technologies in a structured and scalable wa

Industry 4.0 Impact on Evolution of Product Development: The Bicycle Saddle Case Study

The emerging new technologies, the rapid change of market demand, and the influence of society moved the companies to be innovative and to improve their product as continuously as effectively. Therefore, the need for smart manufacturing systems and smart products arises to allow the manufacturer satisfying current customer needs, within a context of highly competitive market. The Industry 4.0 initiative provides a base toward the smart manufacturing, aimed at producing the smart and highly connected product. This study analyzes the role of Industry 4.0 technologies in the product development process. Particularly, it investigates how the whole life cycle of product is conceived, to comply with the Industry 4.0 main features. The paper focuses upon a customized bike saddle, assumed as a case study. The saddle comfort depends on many factors, including the rider anatomy. Therefore, it raises the necessity of profound customization to satisfy the user needs. Artificial intelligence techniques, such as data mining for market research, deep learning for customized design, and additive manufacturing technologies, as the stereolithography for 3D printing, concur all to enable the implementation of the Industry 4.0 paradigm, and to innovate significantly the product

Revolution of Production System for the Industry 4.0

Nowadays, good coordination of production and logistics at a production operational level is required to handle rapidly evolving technology, frequently changing customer demand and satisfaction, and remain competitive. Accelerated by exponentially growing technologies in information and communication technology, production industries are in the throes of a digital transformation, which is referred to as the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0. The shorter product life cycles due to market-demand variables and volatile developments in the production system have forced manufacturing company to work flexibly in order to adapt to changing customer needs. These environments cannot be managed through traditional production systems such as job shops and dedicated production lines. Reconfigurable manufacturing system, which combines the versatility and capability to re-configure of job shops and the dedicated production lines, has been seen as a potential solution in such situations. As the main component of production systems, a new concept of material handling, a reconfigurable conveyor system is introduced