Manufacturing 4.0

Manufacturing 4.0 is a subset of industry 4.0 technology enablers applied to improve the transformation process of raw materials into finished goods^[1]. These technology enablers are segmented in three Manufacturing categories: Digital Manufacturing; Flexible Automation and Additive Manufacturing or 3D Printing.

History and Development[edit]

Manufacturing process are the value adding steps to complete a product (business). With the advent of personalization,and globalization the complexity of and between these steps created new inefficiencies limiting the efficacy of traditional continuous improvement tools such Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma.

At the beginning of Manufacturing there were no identical products, the craftsman made a variant of the same product at every time. Mass production dominated the 20th century with linear dedicated assembly lines making high volumes of the same product over and over offering no variants. Mass customization added some features (color, facade changes) to the massive made products with additional steps at the end of the production lines. The reconfiguration of the transformation steps (routing) was inevitability to keep the pace with customer demands. This attained flexibility came with a high price: Large variety of components per product or product complexity, a larger number of suppliers or supply network complexity, a production scheduling complexity, large under utilization of capital equipment, and larger footprint requirements. Continuous improvement tools and methodologies standardized the process steps reducing this complexity, however they faced difficulties to deal with big data coming out of production systems, rapid equipment reconfiguration to tackle equipment under utilization, real time inventory management, shorter delivery times. Manufacturing 4.0 uses Technology Enablers on top of Lean and Six Sigma to introduce an additional layer of efficiencies by handling complexity^[2].

Technology Enablers[edit]

Technology Enablers in Manufacturing are grouped into three categories:

The digitalization of the transformation process characterized by the extensive use of Internet of Things and digital tools in manufacturing such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Digital Twins, Operational Analytics, Automated Data Collection,
Flexible Automation is the ability of the automatic equipment to rapidly and easily reconfigure itself to change between products for low, mid and high mix manufacturing. Collaborative Robots, Autonomous Mobile Robots, and Exoskeletons, are some of the technologies in this group, however new concepts in development such as Cloud Automation, Internet of Things Automation are increasing their acceptance.
3D Printing used for rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing shorten the development cycle and provides an alternative method to assembly and milling. The use in manufacturing goes from the making of fixtures, spare parts, and low volume production. It has a significant impact on the reduction of supplier complexity and vertical integration.

References[edit]

↑ Manufacturing 4.0, The use of Emergent Technologies in Manufacturing, Palibrio, first edition, 2018. ISBN 978-1-5065-2617-1 Search this book on ..
↑ Impact of Industry 4.0 on Lean Methods: and the Business of German and Chinese Manufacturer in China, first edition, 2015.

Sources[edit]

Perez, Oliver; Sergio Sauceda; Jesrael Cruz (August 2018). Manufacturing 4.0, The use of Emergent Technologies in Manufacturing. Palibrio. ISBN 978-1-5065-2617-1. Search this book on
Frison, Anton (November 2015). Impact of Industry 4.0 on Lean Methods: and the Business of German and Chinese Manufacturer in China. eBook. Search this book on

Perez, Oliver (November 2017). Make Manufacturing Cool Again. Manufacturing Technology Insights. Search this book on