Hybrid digital manufacturing: Capturing the value of digitalization

Abstract

A chasm is growing between the advanced technologies available for improving manufacturing operations and those effectively used in practice. The vision of Industry 4.0 is to mobilize industry to seek out these possibilities for improvement and to close the gap between opportunity and reality. However, when compared with more established improvement opportunities such as lean manufacturing, the digitalization of manufacturing lacks in both paradigmatic examples and an understanding of how to achieve the benefits. This lack is a complication of concern: Without an appropriate operations strategy to capture the value of digitalization, manufacturing companies will be unable to focus on technological investments and operational changes. To address this concern, operations management academics must develop new theory through active engagement in the practice of digitalization in manufacturing. This research presents a paradigmatic example, based on engaged scholarship, focused on effectively combining novel object-interactive and conventional manufacturing syntax for benefiting from digitalization in internal operations and the wider supply chain. The contribution to literature is a novel operations strategy-hybrid digital manufacturing-for capturing the value of Industry 4.0 technologies.

Editorial: Navigating excellence: understanding and overcoming common causes of manuscript rejections in logistics and supply chain management research

“…Design science shapes and refines solutions, emphasizing pragmatic validity and long-term outcomes. Authors are encouraged to adopt explorative design science for methodological advancement, aiming to contribute actionable knowledge with pragmatic validity and practical relevance (Holmström et al ., 2009; Oliva, 2019; Svanberg, 2020; Öhman et al ., 2021; Bagni et al ., 2022; Pfaff, 2023; Stark et al ., 2023). There, scholars have more space to offer a nuanced description of complex and more profound mechanisms and contexts that focus on expanding the knowledge of specific supply chain management problems.…”

Digitalization’s Effect on Chinese Employment Mechanism Study

“…Overall, China's manufacturing industry is facing new opportunities and challenges in the digital age. Digitization is not only a means to improve production efficiency but also an engine to promote sustainable development in the manufacturing industry [50]. By undertaking rigorous research into the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, we can more accurately discern the trajectory of future development and make substantial contributions to the sustainable expansion of the Chinese economy.…”

Digital transformation in operations management: Fundamental change through agency reversal

“…The papers in this special issue exemplify the impact that DT is currently having in OM and the strategic considerations that are rapidly emerging. For instance, Stark et al (2022) provide a rich discussion of how comprehensive digitalization can be leveraged to replace traditional procedural control. The authors highlight, through example, the potential shift in decision making and power attributable to DT in operational process settings, as well as related impacts across the supply chain.…”

“…With the advent of digital counterparts, through the addition of part functionality in the design models used in digital equipment contexts, a more interactive syntax arises with pervasive touch points that permits far deeper scopes of automation-automation that is self-correcting in some instances and capable of making the kind of process changes only possible earlier through human diagnosis and intervention. In short, Stark et al (2022) describe one critical aspect of the conditions under which shifts in digital technology from agent to principal roles become viable. However, the authors also discuss the potential for hybrid, simultaneous use of both forms of encoding, either as a transitional mechanism or as a strategic steady-state.…”

“…A related discussion of encoding-for-integration is demonstrated in Sampson and Pires dos Santos (2023). While the contextual focus of the authors is distinct from that of Stark et al (2022) in that the concern is that of professional services rather than manufacturing, a very similar message emerges: there are virtues to increased process automation with regards to offloading menial work from employees, as well as reducing cost and increasing speed and consistency. Demonstrated through empirical field data and applied simulation methods, the authors suggest that achieving these gains depends on encoding and open communication.…”