The German manufacturing industry has to withstand an increasing global competition on product quality and production costs. As labor costs are high, several industries have suffered severely under the relocation of production facilities towards aspiring countries, which have managed to close the productivity and quality gap substantially. Established manufacturing companies have recognized that customers are not willing to pay large price premiums for incremental quality improvements. As a consequence, many companies from the German manufacturing industry adjust their production focusing on customized products and fast time to market. Leveraging the advantages of novel production strategies such as Agile Manufacturing and Mass Customization, manufacturing companies transform into integrated networks, in which companies unite their core competencies. Hereby, virtualization of the processand supply-chain ensures smooth inter-company operations providing real-time access to relevant product and production information for all participating entities. Boundaries of companies deteriorate, as autonomous systems exchange data, gained by embedded systems throughout the entire value chain. By including Cyber-PhysicalSystems, advanced communication between machines is tantamount to their dialogue with humans. The increasing utilization of information and communication technology allows digital engineering of products and production processes alike. Modular simulation and modeling techniques allow decentralized units to flexibly alter products and thereby enable rapid product innovation. The present article describes the developments of Industry 4.0 within the literature and reviews the associated research streams. Hereby, we analyze eight scientific journals with regards to the following research fields: Individualized production, end-to-end engineering in a virtual process chain and production networks. We employ cluster analysis to assign sub-topics into the respective research field. To assess the practical implications, we conducted face-to-face interviews with managers from the industry as well as from the consulting business using a structured interview guideline. The results reveal reasons for the adaption and refusal of Industry 4.0 practices from a managerial point of view. Our findings contribute to the upcoming research stream of Industry 4.0 and support decisionmakers to assess their need for transformation towards Industry 4.0 practices. Keywords—Industry 4.0., Mass Customization, Production networks, Virtual Process-Chain. Malte Brettel, chairholder, is with the Aachen University (RWTH), Kackertstraße 7, 52072 Aachen (e-mail: brettel@win.rwth-aachen.de). Niklas Friederichsen is with the Aachen University (RWTH), Kackertstraße 7, 52072 Aachen, (corresponding author; phone: +49/(0)241 80 99397; e-mail: friederichsen@win.rwth-aachen.de). Michael Keller and Marius Rosenberg are with the Aachen University (RWTH), Kackertstraße 7, 52072 Aachen (e-mail: keller@win.rwthaachen.de, rosenberg@win.rwth-aachen.de).

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How Virtualization, Decentralization and Network Building Change the Manufacturing Landscape: An Industry 4.0 Perspective

Purpose – The aim of this research paper is to present the critical factors that constitute a successful implementation of lean manufacturing within manufacturing SMEs.Design/methodology/approach – A combination of comprehensive literature review and visits to ten SMEs based in the East of the UK were employed in the study. The companies' practices were observed to highlight the degree of lean manufacturing utilisation within these companies. This was followed by interviewing of the relevant and key personnel involved in lean implementation. Results were analysed and validated through workshops, case studies and Delphi techniques.Findings – Several critical factors that determine the success of implementing the concept of lean manufacturing within SMEs are identified. Leadership, management, finance organisational culture and skills and expertise, amongst other factors; are classified as the most pertinent issues critical for the successful adoption of lean manufacturing within SMEs environment.Research l...

Critical success factors for lean implementation within SMEs

Industry 4.0 provides new paradigms for the industrial management of SMEs. Supported by a growing number of new technologies, this concept appears more flexible and less expensive than traditional ...

The industrial management of SMEs in the era of Industry 4.0

Purpose



– The advent of recession at the beginning of twenty-first century forced many organizations worldwide to reduce cost and to be more responsive to customer demands. Lean Manufacturing (LM) has been widely perceived by industry as an answer to these requirements because LM reduces waste without additional requirements of resources. This led to a spurt in LM research across the globe mostly through empirical and exploratory studies which resulted in a plethora of LM definitions with divergent scopes, objectives, performance indicators, tools/techniques/methodologies, and concepts/elements. The purpose of this paper is to review LM literature and report these divergent definitions, scopes, objectives, and tools/techniques/methodologies. 




Design/methodology/approach



– This paper highlights various definitions by various researchers and practitioners. A total of 209 research papers have been reviewed for the research contribution, research methodology adopted, tools/techniques/methodologies used, type of industry, author profile, country of research, and year of publication. 




Findings



– There are plethora of LM definitions with divergent objectives and scope. Theory verification through empirical and exploratory studies has been the focus of research in LM. Automotive industry has been the focus of LM research but LM has also been adopted by other types of industries also. One of the critical implementation factors of LM is simultaneous adoption of leanness in supply chain. LM has become an integrated system composed of highly integrated elements and a wide variety of management practices. There is lack of standard LM implementation process/framework. 




Originality/value



– The paper reviews 209 research papers for their research contribution, research methodology, author profile, type of industry, and tools/techniques/methodology used. Various characteristics of LM definitions are also reviewed.

Lean manufacturing: literature review and research issues

In an effort to improve customization for today's highly competitive global marketplace, many companies are utilizing product families and platform-based product development to increase variety, shorten lead times, and reduce costs The key to a successful product family is the product platform from which it is derived either by adding, removing, or substituting one or more modules to the platform or by scaling the platform in one or more dimensions to target specific market niches This nascent field of engineering design has matured rapidly in the past decade, and this paper provides a comprehensive review of the flurry of research activity that has occurred during that time to facilitate product family design and platform-based product development for mass customization Techniques for identifying platform leveraging strategies within a product family are reviewed along with metrics for assessing the effectiveness of product platforms and product families Special emphasis is placed on optimization approaches and artificial intelligence techniques to assist in the process of product family design and platform-based product development Web-based systems for product platform customization are also discussed Examples from both industry and academia are presented throughout the paper to highlight the benefits of product families and product platforms The paper concludes with a discussion of potential areas of research to help bridge the gap between planning and managing families of products and designing and manufacturing them

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Product platform design and customization: Status and promise

http://directory.umm.ac.id/Data%20Elmu/jurnal/I/International%20Journal%20of%20Production%20Economics/Vol65.Issue1.Apr2000/2136.pdf

Mass customisation } an automotive perspective

This research article presents the development of a fuzzy-logic advisory system to assist small-medium sized enterprises SMEs as a decision support tool for implementing lean manufacturing. The system is developed using fuzzy logic rules, with a combination of research methodology approaches employed in the research study that included data collection from 10 manufacturing SMEs through documentation analysis, observation of companies’ practices and semi-structured interviews. The overall system comprises three fuzzy-logic advisory sub-systems that feed into a main system. These outputs are relative cost of lean implementation, a company lean readiness status and the level of value-add to be achieved impact/benefits. The three sub-systems were validated with hard data that enabled the assignment of a number of input variables whose membership functions aided the definition of the linguistic variables used. The main system yielded heuristic rules that enable the postulation of scenarios of lean implementation Do it, Probably do it, Possibly do it and Do not do it. This was also validated with a number of firms based within the UK. Moreover, expert opinions encompassed those in both academic and industrial settings. The developed system has the capability to assess the impact of implementing lean manufacturing within small-to-medium sized manufacturers. Hence, a major contribution of the developed system is its provision of the heuristic rules that aid decision-making process for lean implementation at the early implementation stage. The visualisation facility of the developed system is also a useful tool in enabling potential lean users to forecast the relative cost of the lean project upfront, anticipate lean benefits, and realise the degree of lean readiness.

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A fuzzy-logic advisory system for lean manufacturing within SMEs

Small-to-medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) make significant contributions to most national economies. In the UK for instance, SMEs account for up to 40% of gross domestic product (GDP) and 85% of newly created jobs. However, the current economic turnaround, fostered by recent technological advances in terms of e-commerce coupled with the advent of globalisation, has been felt in the manufacturing sector in general but more severely by SMEs. This paper aims to demonstrate through a case study approach how lean manufacturing can enable organisations to respond rapidly to sudden changes in customer demand.

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Geoff Nelder

Papers

Critical success factors for lean implementation within SMEs

Mass customisation } an automotive perspective

A fuzzy-logic advisory system for lean manufacturing within SMEs

Lean manufacturing for smes: enabling rapid response to demand changes

Lean manufacturing for SMEs: Enabling rapid response to demand changes