The Contribution of Lean Management—Industry 4.0 Technologies to Improving Energy Efficiency

The current socio-economic and environmental context obliges companies to increase their energy efficiency to be competitive, and the development of Industry 4.0 technologies should contribute to improve it. This article analyses the influence of Industry 4.0 technologies on energy efficiency and the mediation of quality management of production process variables. After a descriptive analysis, a correlation and regression analysis is presented using information from 72 projects for the integration of Industry 4.0 technologies in industrial companies. At a global level, it is confirmed that the four technology groups (Artificial Vision and Artificial Intelligence, Additive Manufacturing and Robotics, Big Data and Advanced Analytics, and Internet of Things) contribute to improving energy efficiency by an average of 15–25% in the processes where they are integrated. In addition, the regression model determines that improved decision-making capabilities strongly mediate the achievement of higher energy efficiency.The researchers are part of the IT1691-22 research team of the Basque university system. This research work has had the support of the projects ZIRKBOTICS and SOFIA, both R&D&I Projects of the Euskampus Foundation Programme: “Resilience COVID-19”