Lean and industry 4.0: Mapping determinants and barriers from a social, environmental, and operational perspective

Manufacturing companies have started to embrace Industry 4.0 and lean principles to stay competitive. However, the real industry implementation of the integrated approach has been challenging. Even separately, both Lean and Industry 4.0 have high failure rates. Understanding these implementations is essential to increase the application's success and build a bridge between academia and industry. This research uses a systematic literature review methodology to identify case studies that integrate the implementation of lean principles with Industry 4.0 technology. The benefits, barriers, and success factors of the integration were investigated, focusing on environmental, social, and operational perspectives. Forty-two case studies that included lean principles and Industry 4.0 technology in the manufacturing context were identified. The integration resulted in various operational benefits regarding lead-time, throughput, and quality. In terms of environmental impact, there is a potential to estimate the use of resources involved in the production and reduce CO2 emissions. Other benefits include improved employee welfare, better communication, employee empowerment. The main barrier is the investment cost followed by technological readiness. It has been concluded that Lean and Industry 4.0 present considerable potential. However, the integration needs proper understanding on how to start, where to aim, what to be aware of.