Purpose Although the adoption of lean inventory management for performance improvement has been widely recognized, sticky inventory management is still a stopgap measure for new small and medium enterprises (SMEs) against survival risks. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the nonlinear relationship between new SMEs inventory stickiness and venture survival by focusing on the moderating effects

Purpose Increasingly, dynamic market environments lead to growing complexity in manufacturing and pose a severe threat for the competitiveness of manufacturing companies. Systematic guidance to manage this complexity, especially in the context of Industry 4.0 and the therewith rising trends such as digitalization and data-driven production optimization, is lacking. To address this deficit a case-based

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contribution to improving the efficiency of the focal firm made by lean management at the internal and supply chain levels. Design/methodology/approach An empirical study was conducted of 285 Spanish focal companies from industrial sectors that occupy an intermediate position in the supply chain. The data gathering method consisted of a telephone

Purpose Green Lean concepts offer methods for managing manufacturing organizations with the goal of improving organizational performance. Green Lean practices are good options to increase the environmental and operational performance of manufacturing industries. However, there are some barriers to implement Green Lean in manufacturing industries. This paper aims to identify these barriers by reviewing

Purpose The aim of this paper is to develop a contribution to knowledge that adds to the empirical evidence of predictive condition-based maintenance by demonstrating how the availability and reliability of current assets can be improved without costly capital investment, resulting in overall system performance improvements Design/methodology/approach The empirical, experimental approach, technical

Purpose The purpose of this research is to detect, through applying a process-based view, how to manage economisation of the maintenance and modification operations in offshore petroleum logistics operations. Design/methodology/approach A single case study of engineering services, more specifically, maintenance and modification service operations, on a Norwegian Sea oil platform reveals the dynamics

Purpose The authors’ main objective is to examine the resource alteration underlying the digital manufacturing transformation. The authors rely on the adaptation aspect of dynamic capabilities (DC) theory and their analysis shows how and why a factory adapts its resources and capabilities during digital transformation. Design/methodology/approach To grasp the change, the authors apply the longitudinal

Purpose The aim of this study is to explore the link between green manufacturing practices, operational competitiveness, firm reputation and sustainable performance dimensions as well as advance a mediation approach. Design/methodology/approach The study resorted to structured questionnaire to collect data from 158 manufacturing firms from different industries, and partial least square–structural equation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the current practices of tool and die development, particularly in the Malaysian context with respect to collaborative manufacturing (CM). It is important to gauge the presents of CM, which is one of the key elements of Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) so that significant initiatives could be taken. The findings are also expected to address the issues

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of lean criteria on leanness as well as prioritize them, taking the relationships between dimensions into consideration for manufacturing enterprises. Design/methodology/approach This study considers leanness over quality, cost, delivery and innovation (QCDI) performance dimensions. Twenty eight criteria related with these dimensions were

Purpose The desire for firms to gain competitive advantage and improve performance has resulted in the adoption of several practices. Green supply chain practices (GSCPs), just in time (JIT) and total quality management (TQM) are some of the practices adopted by firms to improve operational performance (OP) and business performance (BP). This study examines the direct influence of GSCPs, JIT and TQM

Purpose Adoption of blockchain technology (BT) leads to shrinking supply chains, produces a better quality product, saves product development time and increases the customized offering to the customer. Since it is a new and growing area of research, researchers and practitioners are not entirely aware of challenges in the adoption of BT in supply chain (SC). Therefore, the objective of this research

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a decision support system (DSS) to assist supply chain (SC) risk managers to select a suitable risk management (RM) strategy and expedite the implementation of corresponding RM enablers. The relationship between RM strategies and RM enablers is explored by identifying the underlying factors between them, which is further used to build the DSS. Design

Purpose The paper explores coordination practices in digital–physical product development and their consequences for companies traditionally relying on physical product development. Design/methodology/approach Using an embedded case study design, the paper reports four action research initiatives addressing the digital–physical coordination challenges encountered by a leading B2C company. Findings

Purpose This paper sets out to identify barriers to intra-network exchange within international manufacturing networks (IMNs) from the micro-level perspective of key actors at the plant level, namely, plant leaders. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through interviews with 12 plant leaders from nine different firms operating in at least three geographically dispersed manufacturing facilities

Purpose Cloud manufacturing (CMfg) has emerged as a service-oriented paradigm that enables modularization and on-demand servitization of resources in the context of manufacturing. The plethora of studies on CMfg has led the authors to investigate its implementation, as most of the literature is theoretical or simulation-based. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the reality of the

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the introduction of new technologies can lead to reconsidering the division of the production process as well as the location of each stage, which may mean reshoring some of them. Design/methodology/approach The research is based on the analysis of the consequences of new technologies developed and introduced in the market to be applied in the

Purpose In pursuit of increased competitiveness, global manufacturers often seek tighter integration among the plants in their production networks. However, this is a challenging task because plants are dispersed across multiple institutional environments. Although the literature provides abundant evidence of how formal institutional environments affect the integration among plants, little is known

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the literature and offer a more generalizable empirical investigation on the performance impact of implementing Industry 4.0, and the way important contingency factors (plant size, multinational status, country context) affect implementation efforts. Design/methodology/approach Following a systematic literature review, the empirical research is based on

Purpose From the intra- and inter-regional dimensions, this paper investigates the linkage between industrial agglomeration and inventory performance, and further demonstrates the moderating role of firm size and enterprise status in the supply chain on this linkage. Design/methodology/approach Using a large panel dataset of Chinese manufacturers in the Yangtze River Delta for the period from 2008

Purpose This research aims to conduct, to the best of our knowledge, the first systematic review of the implementation of Industry 4.0 in BRICS. This review facilitates the identification of main factors that affect the readiness to adopt Industry 4.0 in BRICS and the role of different agents, such as multinationals, the public sector or educative institutions. Design/methodology/approach Key publications

Purpose Firms are adopting strategies to advance product quality and environmental sustainability to achieve improved profitability and shareholders’ wealth. The study investigates strategies that create a superior quality performance to competitors and improve both environmental and business performances. This paper explores the direct and indirect influence of lean management and environmental practices

Purpose The purpose of the present study is to assist academics and practitioners in supporting and managing digital production innovation projects using managerial controls. The focus is on projects that deliver innovations containing new combinations of physical, digital and/or cyber-physical components, developed to be used within a production system. More specifically, this paper aims to explore

Purpose To review the state-of-the-art in smart remanufacturing, highlighting key elements of an Industry 4.0 (I4.0) future that supports circular economy (CE) principles and offer a conceptual framework and research agenda to accelerate digitalisation in this sector. Design/methodology/approach The Scopus, Web of Science and ScienceDirect databases and search terms “Industry 4.0”, “Internet of things”

Purpose The impact of product variety decisions on fill rate, inventory and sales performance in a consumer goods company has been examined. From a marketing perspective, it is possible to leverage sales, reach new segments and consequently increase competitiveness when there is a greater product variety on the market. However, operations and logistics professionals indicate potential impacts on the

Purpose This article aims to investigate the organisational implications of adopting Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies, giving specific attention to operations. The paper addresses these implications in two directions: organisational prerequisites for, and consequences of, I4.0 technologies. Design/methodology/approach The research is based on a multiple case study of Italian small and medium enterprises

Purpose This study analyzes the role of supply chain ambidexterity (SC-Ambidexterity) in developing supply chain resilience (SC-Resilience). We describe SC-Ambidexterity as a simultaneous application of supply chain adaptability (SC-Adaptability) and supply chain alignment (SC-Alignment) capabilities. We also consider the role of supply chain agility (SC-Agility) in the relationship between SC-Ambidexterity

Purpose The study aims to analyse the impact of Industry 4.0 implementation on supply chains and develop an implementation framework by considering potential drivers and barriers for the Industry 4.0 paradigm. Design/methodology/approach A critical literature review is performed to explore the key drivers and barriers for Industry 4.0 implementation under four business dimensions: strategic, organisational

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect on interactive research as a means to create relevant knowledge in the domain of operations management in general and specifically in the context of production start-up. Design/methodology/approach The reflection on the use of interactive research in production start-ups was based on a study of two completed interactive research projects. The lens for

Purpose In spite of its potential benefits in a wide range of situations, supply chain risk mitigation strategies have received scant attention on the subject of managing the supply chain risk in the business environment. Especially, there is still a limited understanding of the importance of firms’ supply chain flexibility, resilience and responsiveness in the supply chain risk management (SCRM) literature

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: to raise and address an important change for the human capital in the future of Industry 4.0, and to propose a human-focused perspective for companies underneath the new Industrial Revolution. Design/methodology/approach The research study follows a state-of-the-art literature review process. The nature of the selected approach enables to cover the extensive

Purpose Customer value is the key to successful innovation management. This task is considered complex and abstract. For this reason, several models have been proposed to that end, among them, Lean approaches. Lean's background has been applied to value identification, providing many benefits. This paper aims at analyzing the practices employed to identify customer value through Lean approaches. D

Purpose This study aims to develop a comprehensive set of determinants and sub-determinant of eco-innovation (EI) and to propose an approach for their structuring and prioritisation. Design/methodology/approach A framework was developed based on a literature review, interpretive structural modelling (ISM) was used to structure the main determinants and the results were transferred into a six-phase

Purpose This paper empirically examines the implementation pattern of different types of lean management (LM) techniques on the shop-floor. Based on the socio-technical systems framework, LM techniques are classified as social improvement tools and technical process standardization and stability practices. This categorization facilitates investigating their implementation relationship in a complex

Purpose Lean (TQM and JIT) and agile manufacturing (AM) are viewed as strategic capabilities that can help firms to meet diverse set of market demands. However, the question whether lean manufacturing and AM are complementary or competing capabilities is still open to discussion. This research proposes an integrated research framework that draws on complementary theory, theory of systems, and concept

Purpose The objective of this research is twofold. First, we aim at identifying the pairwise relationships between Lean Production (LP) practices and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies. Second, based on these results, we propose a framework for Lean Automation (LA) implementation, in which I4.0 technologies are integrated into LP practices. Design/methodology/approach To achieve that, a cross-sector

Purpose Few companies have had the success that Toyota Motor Corporation has experienced over the past 70 years. Many give credit for Toyota's success to the company's famous Toyota Production System. Companies outside of Toyota have tried to implement versions of Toyota's system as Lean production; however, few companies have experienced the success of Toyota, and none have experienced Toyota's sustained

Purpose The objective of this paper is to empirically test and verify the enablers of volume flexibility and product-mix flexibility and to assess the influence of these flexibilities on operational performance. Design/methodology/approach A research framework consisting of nine pairs of hypotheses was developed using an extensive literature review. Using a self-administered questionnaire, 391 responses

Purpose This paper aims to study the extent of the transformation of European manufacturing companies towards the factory of the future (FoF) and related concepts, e.g. Industry 4.0 and digitalisation. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative survey design was used to investigate the areas, patterns and elements for implementing FoF. A total of 92 responses from manufacturing firms of Alpine regions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the servitization phenomenon of product-centric companies, by identifying the resources, capabilities and organizational aspects needed to successfully deploy a servitized business model (BM). Design/methodology/approach By adopting a literature-based approach, this paper develops a servitization maturity model (SeMM) aimed

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of how Industry 4.0 related technologies affect the relocation of manufacturing abroad by small and medium-sized enterprises. Design/methodology/approach This paper contains an empirical analysis of how Industry 4.0 related technologies affect the cost-driven relocation of manufacturing abroad based on 191 comprehensive and full responses

Purpose Technological standardization can promote the development of complex products and systems (CoPS) (e.g. large aircraft, high-speed trains). Many studies argue that a superior network position contributes to improving a firm's ability to innovate; however, few studies have considered the aforementioned line of research as falling under the purview of CoPS standardization. This study focuses on

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model that defines the essential components shaping the new Digital Supply Chains (DSCs) through the implementation and acceleration of Industry 4.0. Design/methodology/approach The scope of the present work exposes a conceptual approach and review of the key literature from 1989 to 2019, concerning the evolution and transformation of the

Purpose In recent years, the development and application of innovative and disruptive technologies in manufacturing environments is shaping the fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0. The purpose of this paper is to describe a tool to assess the maturity level in implementing Industry 4.0 concepts and technologies in manufacturing companies. Design/methodology/approach Using a framework

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the competence in use when working with interactive research, which is a continuation and elaboration of action research. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research approach was adopted for the study. The main body of empirical material in this paper is based on two sources of data – a survey comprising open-ended questions, followed

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the selection of decision-making approaches at manufacturing companies when implementing process innovations. Design/methodology/approach This study reviews the current understanding of decision structuredness for determining a decision-making approach and conducts a case study based on an interactive research approach at a global manufacturer. Findings

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how much the Italian manufacturing companies are ready to be concretely involved in the so-called “Industry 4.0” (I4.0) journey. In particular, this paper focuses on analyzing the knowledge and adoption levels of specific I4.0 enabling technologies, also considering how organizations are involved and which are the main benefits and obstacles. Des

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce coherent Industry 4.0 definition via a rigorous analysis framework, and provide a holistic view of technological, organizational and other key aspects (variables) of Industry 4.0 along with the identification of interdependencies that co-occur between them. Design/methodology/approach The study conducts a systematic literature review using Preferred

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess how the emergent theme of Industry 4.0 is considered in the context of supply chain management (SCM) and to identify important areas for future research. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review of 334 studies is carried out. The papers have been analyzed by having a focus on the unit of analysis, research methods used, the key themes

Purpose Given the challenges that Industry 4.0 poses, the purpose of this paper is to propose a comprehensive assessment model suitable for evaluating small- and medium-size enterprises’ (SMEs) digital readiness levels, discuss the results of an assessment of 20 manufacturing SMEs using the proposed model and highlight priorities needed to undertake a successful journey towards Industry 4.0. Desig

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe challenges the manufacturing industry is currently facing when developing future assembly information systems. More specific, this paper focuses on the handling of assembly information from manufacturing engineering to the shop floor operators. Design/methodology/approach Multiple case studies have been conducted within one case company between 2014

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the transformation of logistics processes to meet requirements of Industrie 4.0. Design/methodology/approach The authors follow the principles of action design research to conduct a single-case study investigating four logistics processes at a leading German car manufacturer. For the development of artifacts, the authors used Method Engineering. Findings

Purpose Investing in Industry 4.0 is an important consideration for manufacturing firms who strive to remain competitive in this global economy, but the uncertainty and complexity of where to focus technology investments is a problem facing many manufacturers. The purpose of this paper is to highlight a region of manufacturing firms in the Midwest USA to investigate the role of firm size, access to

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to aim at identifying the relationships between Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies and Lean Manufacturing (LM) practices. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review was conducted, in which 93 studies were analyzed according to their content and contextualization level. Findings In total, 9 I4.0 technologies and 14 LM practices were identified and categorized

Purpose Although the industrial application of drones is increasing quickly, there is a scarcity of applications in manufacturing. The purpose of this paper is to explore current and potential applications of drones in manufacturing, examine the opportunities and challenges involved and propose a research agenda. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports the result of an extensive qualitative investigation

Purpose Industry 4.0 is assumed to yield extensive industry-spanning opportunities. However, exploiting these opportunities requires a targeted implementation of Industry 4.0. The purpose of this paper is to generate a deeper understanding of relevant implementation action. Existing recommendations are mostly general, highly aggregated and difficult to grasp. Yet, specific and concrete actions that

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify current technologies related to Industry 4.0 and to develop a rationale to enhance the understanding of their functions within a data-driven paradigm. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review of 119 papers published in journals included in the Journal Citation Report (JCR) was conducted to identify Industry 4.0 technologies. A descriptive

Purpose Exoskeletons are mechanical structures that humans can wear to increase their strength and endurance. The purpose of this paper is to explain how exoskeletons can be used to improve performance across five phases of manufacturing. Design/methodology/approach Multivocal literature review, encompassing scientific literature and the grey literature of online reports, etc., to inform comprehensive

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the business models that 3D printer manufacturers apply to commercialize their technologies. The authors investigate these business models and analyze whether there are business model patterns. The paper describes the gestalt of the business model patterns and discusses differences and similarities. Design/methodology/approach The authors review the literatures