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The fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, is expected to cause disruptive changes in industrial production. It is driven by rapid technological developments and the need for manufacturing companies to make oneself independent of high labor costs. Industry 4.0 concerns several aspects of industrial production, including manufacturing logistics, business models and products and services. The applications of Industry 4.0 have been vastly outlined. However, the fit of Industry 4.0 applications in different production environments is not clear. The purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate the Industry 4.0 technologies that are applicable to manufacturing logistics, and how the production environment influence the applicability of these technologies. This is done through a multiple case study of four Norwegian manufacturing companies. The findings from the study indicate that the applicability of Industry 4.0 in manufacturing logistics is dependent on the production environment. Companies with a low degree of production repetitiveness see less potential in applying Industry 4.0 technologies in manufacturing logistics, while companies with a highly repetitive production see a higher potential.

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Manual assembly is necessary for production of many products today, as products are becoming more complex and customer specific. Manual assembly systems are important for competitiveness and are therefore a strategic issue. Previous literature has looked at specific problems, such as line balancing, although a strategic perspective is required to effectively fulfil market requirements. Before designing a manual assembly system, it is important to consider the different impact factors to find the ideal manual assembly system configuration. This study discusses the different impact factors and decisions in strategic manual assembly system design. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to assist in strategic design of manual assembly systems. Testing the framework in a case company shows that by designing the manual assembly system according to the identified impact factors, significant reductions of throughput time and non-value adding time in manual assembly can be achieved.