Towards an industrial transformation: the link between lean techniques and industry 4.0 technologies

This work reports the PhD thesis of Maria Pia Ciano. The thesis consists of a research project on the link between Lean techniques and In- dustry 4.0 technologies investigated in eight papers, three to be considered as main and the remaining to be considered as additional. The research project derives from the review of the literature on Lean through biblio- metric tools. These tools are able to quantitatively identify the patterns of literature on a topic. In particular, through clustering and burst detection of keywords, it emerged that the link with Industry 4.0 is an area of research and a recent trend of Lean. Despite the interest in the topic, a deeper analysis of the literature on the link between Lean and Industry 4.0 has identified gaps in knowledge. The specific gaps are: (i) the scarcity of works and knowledge; (ii) the lack of in-depth studies on the enabling effect of Lean on Industry 4.0; (iii) the lack of studies considering the relationship between Lean and Industry 4.0 at a practice-technology level in both directions; (iv) the scarcity of empirical studies; (v) the lack of examination of the effects of the link between Lean and Industry 4.0 on operational performance; (vi) the lack of investigation about the effect of Industry 4.0 on the so-called "soft" Lean techniques; (vii) the need of a com- prehensive integration framework. Given these gaps, this research project aims to fill them by answering three comprehensive research questions: 1. What are the characteristics of the link between Lean and Industry 4.0? 2. How do Lean and Industry 4.0 support each other? 3. How much is the benefit of this support? All papers contribute to filling gap i. The bibliometric review in Main Paper 1, the literature review sections of the other main papers, and the Research Background of this thesis answer RQ1. The multiple case study research in Main Paper 2 answers RQ2 and fills gaps ii, iii, iv, vi, and vii. Main Paper 3 reports statistical descriptive analyses from data collected in a learning factory that answer RQ3 and fill the gap v. The additional papers explore specific elements of either paradigm or one of the two, marginally contributing to the aim of the research project. Finally, the research project is concluded outlining opportunities for future research.