Industry 4.0: critical investigations and synthesis of key findings

Abstract

The concept of Industry 4.0 has been one of the most debated and trending topics over the last few years. Progressively, it has attracted the attention of academicians, practitioners, and policymakers worldwide. However, there needs to be more systematic review of research in the current literature that captures the current state of this new paradigm. This study aims to address this gap by conducting a comprehensive review of Industry 4.0 previous studies to identify its technological, organisational, and managerial enablers, as well as its implementation challenges and benefits. A systematic literature review was conducted, in which 244 peer-reviewed journal papers were analysed in the Scopus database until the end of May 2022. This study excluded conference papers, book chapters, and journal papers not written in English. The study indicated that industry 4.0 is still an immature topic, and applying this new paradigm is not a matter of technology only. Organisational and managerial aspects should be considered. Additionally, the transition towards Industry 4.0 is a complex task, many obstacles exist, and manufacturing companies should be aware of these challenges for successfully implementing this new paradigm. The obtained results in this study synthesise recent studies published on Industry 4.0 and provide a comprehensive picture of Industry 4.0 and potential research directions for future research. Also, this study offers significant guidelines for managers interested in implementing Industry 4.0.

Industry 4.0 technologies for cultivated meat manufacturing

“…Companies need to be able to justify the expenses associated with implementing Industry 4.0 and predictive maintenance by showcasing the possible advantages including enhanced productivity, cost reduction and increased efficiency (Hassoun, Bekhit, et al, 2022). Companies may need to perform a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis to ascertain the possible return on investment of the investment (Elnadi & Abdallah, 2023). To ensure quick adoption, Industry 4.0 paradigms for the CM sector must be evolved in a way easily accessible to different kinds of CM business entities, regardless of employee numbers, finances and resources (Australian Centre for Robotic Vision, 2018; UNI-DO, 2017).…”

“…Companies need to possess a thorough understanding of the available funding choices and the application procedures (UNIDO, 2017). One of the main financial challenges that CM manufacturing companies may face when implementing Industry 4.0 and their predictive maintenance are the investment costs (Elnadi & Abdallah, 2023; Hassoun, Bekhit, et al, 2022). Integration of Industry 4.0 technologies and predictive maintenance may require firms to reconfigure existing manufacturing units and also need to invest in new hardware and software systems (Elnadi & Abdallah, 2023).…”

“…One of the main financial challenges that CM manufacturing companies may face when implementing Industry 4.0 and their predictive maintenance are the investment costs (Elnadi & Abdallah, 2023; Hassoun, Bekhit, et al, 2022). Integration of Industry 4.0 technologies and predictive maintenance may require firms to reconfigure existing manufacturing units and also need to invest in new hardware and software systems (Elnadi & Abdallah, 2023). Implementing these emerging technologies might incur significant expenses, hence organisations must possess the requisite financial means to invest in them (Elnadi & Abdallah, 2023; Hassoun, Bekhit, et al, 2022).…”

“…Integration of Industry 4.0 technologies and predictive maintenance may require firms to reconfigure existing manufacturing units and also need to invest in new hardware and software systems (Elnadi & Abdallah, 2023). Implementing these emerging technologies might incur significant expenses, hence organisations must possess the requisite financial means to invest in them (Elnadi & Abdallah, 2023; Hassoun, Bekhit, et al, 2022). Companies need to be able to justify the expenses associated with implementing Industry 4.0 and predictive maintenance by showcasing the possible advantages including enhanced productivity, cost reduction and increased efficiency (Hassoun, Bekhit, et al, 2022).…”

Proposal of Mapping Digital Twins Definition Language to Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture

“…The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) has been aimed from its very beginning to the creation of more and more flexible, interoperable and innovative systems and services to achieve effective business models that enhance the quality of production [ 1 , 2 , 3 ].…”