Challenges and barriers to connecting World Class Manufacturing and continuous improvement processes to Industry 4.0 paradigms

Abstract

This paper exposes the difficulties in integrating “Industry 4.0 Practices” and “World-Class Manufacturing” due to the rapid expansion of production systems and the increasingly complex data monitoring. The applied methodology was to study multiple cases with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire. The analysis comprised responses of 15 large companies with different expertise from five countries and three continents. The results show that when a company’s strategy is linked to Industry 4.0 practices and the World-Class Manufacturing method, they boost productivity by monitoring the shop floor, applying analytical tools, and spreading the organisational culture aimed at improving processes. The results also indicate that human resources are essential in this integration. The conclusion indicates robust barriers to the increasing progress of these procedures, such as the costs associated with the use of technologies, the lack of knowledge of the applied methods and tools, the lack of trained and qualified human resources, and the resistance of people to the use and application of the newly adopted practices. The continuous improvement practices do not keep up with the speed of development that the Industry 4.0 practices propose, requiring studies directed to “World-Class Manufacturing” and “Industry 4.0 practices”. Although there is a coexistence of improvement and innovation in world-class manufacturers, the literature has not yet provided a complete understanding of how this coexistence can be achieved at the manufacturing level. Therefore, the paper presents the main actions to overcome these barriers.

Factors That Influence World Class Manufacturing Adoption in Developing Countries

“…Table 1 summarises the barriers to adopting WCM from selected studies [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] that were chosen for their diversity and comprehensive contribution to understanding the barriers to and drivers of adopting WCM in various settings. Terra et al [5] Challenges and barriers to WCM and I4.0 paradigms using case studies from five countries.…”

“…Pointed out barriers such as lack of knowledge of the applied methods and tools, lack of competent human resources, and employee resistance [5].…”

“…Furthermore, studies such as that of Terra et al [5] show that combining the WCM method and Industry 4.0 principles could boost organisational productivity. Organisations could leverage shop floor monitoring, apply advanced analytical tools, and strengthen the culture of continuous improvement [5]. This paper presents the purpose of the study in section 2 and an overview of WCM in section 3.…”

Model development for assessing inhibitors impacting Industry 4.0 implementation in Indian manufacturing industries: an integrated ISM-Fuzzy MICMAC approach

“…Lack of standardization and benchmarking of business operations is another challenge that technocrats and managers face while digitalizing the industry operations. A distinctly explained and stated set of standards based on dynamic optimization models is a must-have condition to ensure seamless data sharing between external and internal stakeholders like regulatory agencies, production lines, machines, supply chain, and customers throughout the entire value chain (Akdil et al 2018 ; De Vries and Van Wassenhove 2020 ; Terra et al 2021 ).…”

A Scoping Review of Pipeline Maintenance Methodologies Based on Industry 4.0

“…The use of these technologies is not only changing business models but also the way they are managed and how they are produced. As they evolve towards Industry 4.0, production plants also have to adopt 4.0 maintenance systems that, although they involve more complexity due to using more technological resources, represent significant improvements [9].…”