Systemic and cyber-physical methodology for the implementation of Industry 4.0 in Mexican companies of the automotive manufacturing industry

Abstract

The transition towards the new technological paradigm in production systems resulting from Industry 4.0 (hereinafter I4.0), pursues among its main objectives, greater operational efficiency, and productivity, a greater scope of automation, customization, and flexibility in production, the increase in man-machine interaction, as well as the creation of more complex but better-paid jobs and new business models. For this reason, a broad understanding of what constitutes I4.0 today and what can represent the future requires knowledge about the technologies that make it up, as well as different tools that can help to carry out a correct and comprehensive implementation. The relevance of the Mexican automotive manufacturing industry in the national economy, as well as the importance of the I4.0 transition in this sector, is addressed, referring to several success stories and their key factors. A Systemic and Cyber-physical Methodology is presented as a fundamental component of this work, where its different stages are described, the used tools, and its isomorphic relationship with the Soft Systems Methodology. As an added element an illustrative example is provided of how the application of the Proposed Methodology would be in an Automotive Manufacturing Company.