Industry 4.0: Revolution or Evolution?

Abstract

"Industry 4.0" term is devoted to the fourth industrial revolution. Over time and by developing different technologies, this term is coming with the new paradigm and technologies, which help to connect the machines, products, and methods as an interconnected system. This paper aims to introduce an analysis and a reflection around the concepts industry 4.0 and their impacts in the actual industrial world. The effects of this digitalization will be investigated on supply chain systems, decision-making processes, and business models. The classic supply chain is evolving into a Network Supply System (NSS) that is an interconnected supply chain with more focus on product and customer expectations. The global value chain process tends to be product-oriented. Smart data make the decisions more dynamic, flexible, and precise. Therefore, every industrial sector has to be adapted to this digital transformation in all aspects. However, the environmental aspects, global warming, and human healthcare issues are the challenge facing industries and human life, which can be like a brake to make efforts to improve digital life and machine technicity. This paper tries to produce a critical analysis of the concept "industry 4.0 revolution" based on different guidelines to show that it is an evolution of the industry coming through the development of several technologies.

Workload Balancing on Identical Parallel Machines: Theoretical and Computational Analysis

“…Recently, Asadollahi-Yazdi et al [23] discussed the concept of Industry 4.0 and its effect on the industrial world and global society. This study provided a comprehensive overview of industrial revolutions, manufacturing production plans over time, as well as a detailed analysis of Industry 4.0 and its features.…”

Exact Methods and Heuristics for Order Acceptance Scheduling Problem under Time-of-Use Costs and Carbon Emissions

“…Constraints (7) indicate that an accepted order can have at most a successor. Constraints (8) impose that each accepted order must have a predecessor. Constraints (9) impose to any order j to be processed exactly p j time units.…”

“…Early industry focused on mass production with high volumes of few products. Yet, this past decade, major changes in industry have been occurring [8]. Product variety and demand for tailor-made products force manufacturers to make a compromise between their available production capacity, their production organization and their sales volume.…”

Perceptions of Industry 4.0 in Visegrad Firms

“…Thus, these new technologies create vast opportunities for the firms in terms of improving their efficiency, competitiveness and profitability as well as their ability to adapt flexibly to unique circumstances (Bauer et al, 2015). These technologies hence make companies interested in such solutions and firms are even forced by competition to apply them (Asadollahi-Yazdi et al, 2020). Such technologies are among others robotics, Artificial Intelligence, 3D printing, additive manufacturing, big data analytics, digitalisation, automation, etc., which allow firms to improve the efficiency of various production processes radically.…”