Sustainable Smart Manufacturing in Industry 4.0: Real-Time Resource Planning, Process Monitoring, and Production Control.

• Author: Pickard, Madeleine

1. Introduction

   Companies should identify the Industry 4.0 facilitators which may bring about uniform supply chain processes and thus attain sustainability. (Bag et al., 2018) Employees' involvement has a positive mediating impact on the link between Industry 4.0 implementation and operational performance enhancement. (Tortorella et al., 2018)

2. Conceptual Framework and Literature Review

   Pivotal technological advancements facilitating Industry 4.0 and their performance in manufacturing impact and rely on each other (Chijioke et al., 2018; Koppel and Kolencik, 2018; Mihaila, 2018; Nica, 2018; Sion, 2018), their harmonized interaction being mandatory for effective carrying out of Industry 4.0 in production. (Fatorachian and Kazemi, 2018) A smart manufacturing system comprises a data system (cloud computing and design of commodities and operations that perform as an automatic data processing machine of the smart manufacturing system), and of a physical system that encompasses a smart factory and its traders. (Yin et al., 2018) Prominent firms implement Industry 4.0 simply to support their current business structures (Celi and Viti, 2018; Jouet, 2018; Means, 2017; Mihaila et al., 2018; Popescu Ljungholm, 2017) while startups thoroughly alter their operating patterns, depending considerably on big data analytics and digital platform business models. (Hahn, 2019)

3. Methodology and Empirical Analysis

   Building our argument by drawing on data collected from BDC, BDO, Deloitte, eMarketer, McKinsey, and PwC, we performed analyses and made estimates regarding companies deploying artificial intelligence at scale (%, by industry) and applications of Industry 4.0 in small and mid-sized businesses (%). Data collected from 4,300 respondents are tested against the research model by using structural equation modeling.

4. Results and Discussion

   In Industry 4.0, companies digitize their physical resources and assimilate them into digital environments in every part of the value chain, bringing about intensifications in output via the homogenization of digital systems of manufacturing with inspection and transmission of all information produced within a smart ecosystem. (Badri et al., 2018) Industry 4.0 technologies are a facilitator of lean manufacturing process, generating the improvement of sustainable organizational performance. (Kamble et al., 2019) Networks having deep-rooted system, computing, and supervision technologies can manage the real manufacturing operations in compliance with regulation consolidated by computations. (Zhang et al., 2019) (Tables 1-8)

5. Conclusions and Implications

   The implementation of various Industry 4.0 technologies is...