4th Industrial Revolution Design through Lean Foundation

Industry 4.0 was introduced with the hope of transitioning to the next industrial revolution. I4.0 is a vision of increasing flexibility and efficiency within a system of low complexity. Despite this intention, Industry 4.0 has required users to understand complex information and communication systems, limiting usability and therefore not necessarily satisfying the original vision. However, application of principles from the Lean Production Systems originally developed in the 1930's in combination with Industry 4.0, may help to reach its desired goals. Through a literature review, this paper discusses the current state of art of Industry 4.0 and some Lean Production Systems principles. The paper focuses on a model combining Lean Production Systems with Industry 4.0, that was created in response to the shortcomings of the anticipated industrial revolution. With a Lean Production System as a foundation, the six design principles of I4.0 of interoperability, virtualization, decentralization, real-time capability, service orientation, and modularity can be better implemented to reach the vision of highly flexible and low complexity systems. In return, horizontal and vertical integration within Industry 4.0 can support and accelerate Lean principles by reducing human error and increasing intercommunications between the systems, resulting in a productive integration. The specific principles of Lean that could boost Industry 4.0 will be discussed, demonstrating why a company should be Lean, meaning value adding processes and stakeholder orientation are at its core.