Industry 4.0 | Encyclopedia MDPI

Industry 4.0: Comparison

Please note this is a comparison between Version 1 by Sandro Serpa and Version 6 by Loris Barbieri.

TWhe concept of Industry 4.0 is often associated with the fourth industrial revolution industrial, given the profound implications for the productive paradigm. But what exactly is at is Industry 4.0? Industry 4.0 emerged in Germany in 2011, with the aim of increasing the competitiveness of German industry. In short, it applied digital technologies to production, in a close association between economy and digital technology, resulting in innovation through the integration between the real and the virtual world (Cyber-Physical Systems) in industrial activity and production.

Industry 4.0
smart factory
digital factory
digital technologies
digital economy

1. Introductiondustry 4.0

The concept of Industry 4.0 is often associated with the fourth industrial revolution industrial (Stentoft & Rajkumar, 2020), given the profound implications for the productive paradigm. But what exactly is Industry 4.0? Industry 4.0 emerged in Germany in 2011, with the aim of increasing the competitiveness of German industry (Grabowska, 2020). In short, it applied digital technologies to production, in a close association between economy and digital technology, resulting in innovation through the integration between the real and the virtual world (Cyber-Physical Systems) in industrial activity and production (Ferreira & Serpa, 2018, 2019).

On Industry 4.0:

According to Stentoft and Rajkumar (2020)^[1], citing Kagermann, Wahlster, and Helbig (2013, p. 14), Industry 4.0

"involves the technical integration of Cyber-Physical Systems into manufacturing and logistics and the use of the Internet of Things and Services in industrial processes. This will have implications for value creation, business models, downstream services and work organization"^[1] (Stentoft & Rajkumar, 2020, p. 2954).

Industry 4.0 (both in the production and in the management processes) is deeply interrelated with technology^[2] (Grabowska, 2020). Stentoft and Rajkumar (2020) ^[1]put forth several technologies related to Industry 4.0 ^[1](Table 1).

Table 1. Technologies relating to Industry 4.0

Materials and smart manufacturing technologies

3D printing

3D scanning

Robotics

iBin (intelligent Kanban bin)

Advanced materials

Augmented reality and simulation^[3]

3D printing

3D scanning

Robotics

iBin (intelligent Kanban bin)

Advanced materials

Augmented reality and simulation

Smart connecting technologies

Mobile internet

Advanced sensors

Remote control

Advanced Enterprise Resource

Planning (ERP) Technology

Simulation

Big data

Digital documentation

Automatic analysis and visualization of data

Cloud computing

Internet of things

2. Implementation of the Industry 4.0 Production

Source: Stentoft & Rajkumar, 2020, p. 2955.

The implementation of the Industry 4.0 production paradigm materialises in the “smart factory” (Ferreira & Serpa, 2018)^[4], as the "“core concept of Industry 4.0, which employs cyber-physical systems to monitor the physical production processes of the factory and make decentralized decision-making possible. Then the physical systems become the Internet of Things, communicating and cooperating both with each other and with humans in real-time via the wireless web"^[5]” (Lin, Shyu, & Ding, 2017, p. 4).

From the implementation of Industry 4.0, and according to Grabowska’s (2020) proposal, four general categories of emerging new generation factories with different features of their own may be found within the same general framework ^[2](Grabowska, 2020) (Table 2).

Table 2. Four types of future smart factories

Archetypes of factories of Industry 4.0
1. Intelligent automated and robotic factories	Responding to the demand for mass products with the implementation of very high production volumes at low costs
2. Digital mass-individualisation factories, otherwise known as customer-centric plants, i.e., customer-focused factories	Possibility of using predictive maintenance to reduce unplanned downtime
3. E-plants in a box, mobile modular factories, i.e., mobile modular factories	Real-time tracking and location of the unfinished product has a high level of integration and automation at production sites; factory management is centralised in one main building
4. Handmade production with a digital touch	Focus on production in the scope of large or medium volumes; however, they enable full personalisation of their products, which makes the products highly individualised through short or very short series, articulating flexibility with productivity

Archetypes of factories of Industry 4.0
1. Intelligent automated and robotic factories	Responding to the demand for mass products with the implementation of very high production volumes at low costs
2. Digital mass-individualisation factories, otherwise known as customer-centric plants, i.e., customer-focused factories	Possibility of using predictive maintenance to reduce unplanned downtime
3. E-plants in a box, mobile modular factories, i.e., mobile modular factories	Real-time tracking and location of the unfinished product has a high level of integration and automation at production sites; factory management is centralised in one main building
4. Handmade production with a digital touch	Focus on production in the scope of large or medium volumes; however, they enable full personalisation of their products, which makes the products highly individualised through short or very short series, articulating flexibility with productivity

Source: Adapted from Grabowska (2020).

In general, the implementation of digital technology in production processes, besides having potentialities, also raises deep challenges to be considered. As Hanna (2020) ^[6]points about several challenges for the development of the digital economy,

“1. Clarifying and prioritizing objectives

2. Securing coherence among assessment tools

3. Addressing poverty, and inequality

4. Attending to process, participation, and partnerships

5. Strengthening country implementation

6. Integrating innovation, and managing risks

7. Integrating digital economy into a country development strategy

8. Promoting local demand and effective use

9. Collaborating across sectors and practices

10. Engaging business"” (p. 8).

References

Ferreira, C. M., & Serpa, S. (2018). Socusing on digiety 5.0 and social development: Contributions to a discussion. Management and Organizational Studies, 5(4), 26-31. https://doi.org/10.5430/mos.v5n4p26

Ferreira, C. M., & Serpa, S. (2019). Societal tecy 5.0. In Encyclopedia, Vol.1, Available at https://encyclopedia.pub/321

Grabowska, S. (2020). Smart factories in the age of Inodustry 4.0. Management Systems in Production Engineering, 28(2), 90-96. https://doi.org/10.2478/mspe-2020-0014

Hanna, N. K. (2020). Assessing the digital ecogy in prodnomy: Aims, frameworks, pilots, results and lessons. Research Square. Preprints. https://doi.org/doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-23091/v1

Lin, K., Shyu, J., & Ding, K. (2017). A ction,ross-strait comparison of innovation policy under Industry 4.0 is oand sustainability development transition. Sustainability, 9(5), 786. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9050786

Stentoft, J., & Rajkumar, C. (2020) The of the critical econrelevance of Industry 4.0 and its relationship with moving manufacturing out, back and staying at home. International Journal of Production Research, 58(10), 2953-2973. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2019.1660823

Authors:

Carloms Mic guel Ferreira

Interd sisciplinary Centre of Social fouSciences – CICS.NOVA, Lisbon; ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal

Sandro Serpat

Unionversity of the emergencAzores, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Department of Sociology; Interdisciplinary Centre of Society 5.0 – acial Sciences – CICS.UAc/CICS.NOVA.UAc; Interdisciplinary Centre for Childhood and Adolescence – NICA-Uac, super-smart society.Portugal