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Synergy between Industry 4.0 and Lean Methodology

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 Journal of Mechatronics, Automation and Identification Technology
Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 17 – 20, 2020.

Synergy between Industry 4.0 and Lean Methodology

Dragan PAVLOVIĆ, Peđa MILOSAVLJEVIĆ, Srđan MLADENOVIĆ
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Niš, Niš, Serbia
dragan.pavlovic@masfak.ni.ac.rs, pedja.milosavljevic@ masfak.ni.ac.rs, srdjan.mladenovic@ masfak.ni.ac.rs

Abstract— Following the ongoing trend of the manufacturing
industry digitalization, a new industrial paradigm called
Industry 4.0 has emerged as one of the most discussed
concepts. Industry 4.0 is changing the way the products are
manufactured, integrating a smart network of machines and
ICT systems and creating an intelligent factory. Lean is a
widely recognized methodology for improving productivity
and decreasing costs in manufacturing organizations. Both of
these approaches aim to increase productivity and flexibility.
In recent years, there have been few studies and articles
showing similarities and differences between Industry 4.0
and Lean methodology, and whether these two approaches
are suitable for each other. The goal of this paper is to review
the available literature on the relation between Industry 4.0
and Lean, and to show if they can complement each other or
are in conflict.
Keywords— Lean, Industry 4.0, Methodology,
Manufacturing, Industry
I. INTRODUCTION
Globalization, strong competition, rapid changes of
consumers’ preferences, as well as the constantly evolving
trends are pressing businesses to increase their flexibility,
in order to be able to instantly respond to those trends and
develop the capability to produce highly customized
products.
Lean is used for several decades, and it's arguably the
most prominent and widely recognized methodology for
improving productivity and decreasing costs in
manufacturing organisations [1].
This approach supports organisations in their efforts to
reduce the production cost, improve quality, improve
responsiveness by reducing lead times, and increase
flexibility through continuous improvement, identification
and elimination of waste [2]-[4].
However, in recent years a new paradigm Industry 4.0,
so-called the fourth industrial revolution, has emerged in
the manufacturing sector as one of the most discussed
concepts, with the potential to bring manufacturing
capabilities to the next level. It allows creating a smart
network of machines, products, components, properties,
individuals and ICT systems in the entire value chain to
have an intelligent factory [5].
Both of these approaches aim to increase productivity
and flexibility and, according to [6], it’s possible to
integrate Industry 4.0 and Lean into one system.
The connection between Industry 4.0 and Lean has
been described in many scientific papers published in the
last few years. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the
impacts and opportunities of the integration between
Industry 4.0 and Lean. This is achieved through a
systematic literature review that is available to the authors.
II. LEAN METHODOLOGY
For decades Lean has been a widely known and
accepted approach, not only in the manufacturing world
where it originates. Lean can be implemented in all types
of organizations and processes. It is known as a
methodology for maximizing customer value while
minimizing waste, i.e. create more output with less input,
in order to maintain effectiveness, flexibility, and
profitability [7]. Waste is any operation or activity that
consumes resources without adding value and a customer
is not willing to pay. Taiichi Ohno defined 7 Lean wastes
within the Toyota Production System as:
 transportation,
 inventory,
 motion,
 waiting,
 overproduction,
 overprocessing,
 defects. [8]
To eliminate waste, Lean is using various tools,
techniques and methods. There are over 100 tools, but it's
not necessary to know and apply all of them. Some of the
most used tools are listed below [9]:
 Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED),
 Single Piece Flow,
 Total Productive Maintenance (TPM),
 First-in-first-out (FIFO),
 5S method,
 Kaizen,
 Just-in-Time (JIT),
 Pull system,
 Kanban;
 Visual management,
 Zero defect,
 SMED;
 Value Stream Mapping (VSM),
 Poka Yoke,
 Cellular manufacturing.

This paper is selected from V International Conference MECHANICAL ENGINEERING IN XXI CENTURY, Niš, December 9-10, 2020. 17
 Fundamental principles of Lean, according to [10] (Fig.
1), are:
 identify value,
 map the value stream,
 create flow,
 establish pull,
 seek perfection.

Fig. 2 Industry 4.0 (By Christoph Roser at AllAboutLean.com under the

free CC-BY-SA 4.0 license)

IV. SIMILARITIES BETWEEN INDUSTRY 4.0 AND LEAN

Fig. 1 Lean principles
III. INDUSTRY 4.0
Industry 4.0, originated in 2011 from a German
government initiative regarding a high-tech strategy for
2020, changes production processes by using the
advancements of the Internet of Things (IoT) and
information and communication technology (ICT) to
integrate digitalization into the production [11] (Fig. 2).
The main idea behind this term, that supposed to
symbolize the fourth industrial revolution, is the digital
integration of the physical basic system and software
system.
According to [12], Industry 4.0 encounters to a wide
range of concepts including increments in mechanization,
automation, digitalization, networking and miniaturization.
Based on [13], Industry 4.0 focuses on the establishment
of intelligent and communicative systems including
machine-to-machine communication and human-machine
interaction.
The transformation in Industry 4.0, according to [14],
is based on eight basic technologies:
 data analytics and artificial intelligence (big data
analytics),
 adaptive robotics,
 simulation,
 cyber-physical systems,
 Industrial Internet,
 cloud systems,
 additive manufacturing and virtualization
technologies.
Although it can be considered as a relatively new
research field, the number of publications has grown up in
the last few years [15].
Based on their core ideas, Industry 4.0 and Lean have
a lot of similarities. Both Industry 4.0 and Lean aim to
increase the competitiveness of organizations, but they
apply different types of tools to achieve that goal. While
Industry 4.0 relies on advanced technologies, Lean relies
on continuous improvement. Some authors in their
publications asked some questions that need to be
answered, about differences of these two approaches, and
whether they are suitable for each other [16]-[18].
Regardless of that, different studies agree that Industry
4.0 can bring changes to common lean practices and tools.
As shown in [19], manufacturers who successfully
implement and integrate these two approaches will reduce
conversion costs by as much as 40% in five to ten years.
Lean can be defined as “doing more with less”, which
is fully valid for the future. Therefore, lean principles for
reducing complexity and avoiding anything that does not
add value to become even more relevant for Industry 4.0
[20].
As in [21], a study of the relationship between
advanced communication technologies and Lean was
conducted, and the conclusion was that information and
communication technologies (ICT) can improve the
performance of Lean methodology.
Reference [22] shows that inefficient processes can be
automated (digitally supported), but the process itself will
remain unstable. Automation of such a process, with no
standards or performance indicators, will not improve the
operational performance [23]. Therefore, Lean can
improve the implementation of Industry 4.0 in such
processes.
Visual control, which makes it easier to identify
problems in the process, is very important in Lean. Based
on that, [22] and [24] argues that a Lean implementation
must be a prerequisite for a successful transformation of
Industry 4.0.
Reference [25] summarizes findings from numerous
articles on how Industry 4.0 can enhance Lean, as well as
how Lean can support Industry 4.0.
Similar to previous, [26] presents a comprehensive
table that shows to what degree each one of the principles
of Industry 4.0 supports each Lean tool.
Based on a survey of 108 European companies that are
in process of implementation of Lean and Industry 4.0, [27]
found that Lean is easing condition for Industry 4.0
adoption, but they are independent.
The results of the integration of Lean and Industry 4.0
in 110 Brazilian manufacturing companies are shown in

18
[28]. Authors claim that the Lean approach is positively
associated with Industry 4.0 and that it will lead to
improved performance of the companies.
A few articles argue about the fact that implementation
of Industry 4.0 does not eliminate Lean, but rather helps to
increase the maturity of the Lean effort. Industry 4.0 will
be integrated into existing Lean frameworks and will
increase the flexibility of Lean processes [16], [29],
usually based on the implementation of identification
technology [30], [31].
Value stream mapping (VSM), as one of the most
fundamental Lean tool and principle, is used for mapping
the current process and identify improvement areas in the
value stream, and [33] claim that Industry 4.0 can improve
VSM.
Also, [33] recognizes VSM as one of the most used
Lean tools, and [34] gives a survey with collected views of
Lean experts regarding VSM development by means of
digitalization.
Another commonly used Lean tool is Jidoka or
automation with human intelligence. As shown in [35], a
new term “Lean automation”, which uses cyber-physical
systems, is presented. Lean automation should expand the
application of Jidoka as a way to improve production
system flexibility.
Finally, [26] identify VSM, as well as standardization
and SMED, as the basic Lean tools that serve as a
foundation and support the successful implementation of
Industry 4.0.
As shown in [36], there are some doubts about the
smooth integration of Industry 4.0 into Lean, because of
the highly cost-intensive implementation process of
Industry 4.0 and some risks associated with cybersecurity.
V. CONCLUSIONS
Although Industry 4.0 is a relatively new term, there is
a large number of papers describing this approach, as well
as a link to a Lean methodology that has been known for
decades. The paper shows, through a review of literature
that benefits from the implementation of Industry 4.0 and
Lean methodology are undeniable. The vast majority of the
published papers confirm benefits and a strong correlation
between Industry 4.0 and Lean.
Both approaches mentioned above share the same
ultimate priorities of waste reduction and efficiency gains.
It can be concluded that the Lean methodology will not
disappear with the progress of Industry 4.0, moreover, it is
likely to become more important for the successful
implementation of Industry 4.0.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was financially supported by the
Ministry of Education, Science and Technological
Development of the Republic of Serbia.
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