A global industrial perspective on lean industry 4.0 : a qualitative wide-angle lens approach

Abstract

This paper provides an insight into the global state of Lean Industry 4.0 (LI4) with over 1,000 industry responses. The approach employs a rigorous qualitative open-response survey. Our findings indicate that there was no unified industry perspective of LI4 terminology. The evolution of I4 is taking a similar path to Lean and making the same mistakes by not focusing on leadership, engagement, competencies, and behaviours. Past academic research has perhaps over-emphasised the environment and supply chain. The benefits of LI4 application are largely in terms of efficiency, cost reduction, learning and engagement. This work contributes by highlighting research avenues: why a piecemeal approach has been taken by industry to LI4, why LI4 has not been more widespread, and more detailed studies around contingent factors). It also provides industry with lessons on how to implement LI4 and the mistakes to avoid such as seeing implementation as a purely technical exercise.