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The purpose of this systematic review is to critically analyze pharmaceutical industry case studies on the implementation of Lean 4.0 methodologies to synthesize key lessons, benefits and best practices. The goal is to inform decisions and guide investments in related technologies for enhancing quality, compliance, efficiency and responsiveness across production and supply chain processes.

The article utilized a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology following five phases: formulating research questions, locating relevant articles, selecting and evaluating articles, analyzing and synthesizing findings and reporting results. The SLR aimed to critically analyze pharmaceutical industry case studies on Lean 4.0 implementation to synthesize key lessons, benefits and best practices.

Key findings reveal recurrent efficiency gains, obstacles around legacy system integration and data governance as well as necessary operator training investments alongside technological upgrades. On average, quality assurance reliability improved by over 50%, while inventory waste declined by 57% based on quantified metrics across documented initiatives synthesizing robotics, sensors and analytics.

As a comprehensive literature review, findings depend on available documented implementations within the search period rather than direct case evaluations. Reporting bias may also skew toward more successful accounts.

Synthesized implementation patterns, performance outcomes and concealed pitfalls provide pharmaceutical leaders with an evidence-based reference guide aiding adoption strategy development, resource planning and workforce transitioning crucial for Lean 4.0 assimilation.

This systematic assessment of pharmaceutical Lean 4.0 adoption offers an unprecedented perspective into the real-world issues, dependencies and modifications necessary for successful integration, absent from conceptual projections or isolated case studies alone until now.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between Lean manufacturing and Industry 4.0 for small and medium size of enterprise in Japan and Brazil.

The authors conducted a quantitative survey (20 companies in Japan and 30 companies in Brazil) combined with a qualitative interview (2 companies in Japan and 15 companies in Brazil).

According to the quantitative study, 90% of them practice Lean manufacturing and 40% of them practice Industry 4.0. In the qualitative study in Brazil, four managers responded that the Lean manufacturing is a prerequisite for Industry 4.0 since any production process with waste cannot be productive, even with sophisticated digitalization technology.

The authors explored further the relationship between “defensive Digital Transformation (DX),” which is based mainly on Lean manufacturing, and “offensive DX,” which relates to customer value creation through Industry 4.0. This study clarifies the relationship and plays as a roadmap to develop better the manufacturing from current status to the vision of Industry 4.0.

This study aims to examine the impact of Lean 4.0 practices on value co-creation in the dairy ecosystem.

Data collection were carried out through a questionary application with 126 professionals linked to the dairy ecosystem, including milk producers, milk cooperatives and milk transporters. The data were analyzed using Cluster Analysis, Mann-Whitney test and Chi-Square test.

A strong relation was found between the use of Lean 4.0 tools and the increase in operational performance, in addition to milk quality. Moreover, it can be noted that the use of digital technologies from Industry 4.0 has a strong relation with dairy production optimization, in other words, it is possible to be more efficient in the dairy process via Lean 4.0 adoption.

The study is limited to analyzing the Brazilian dairy ecosystem. The results presented may not reflect the characteristics of the other countries.

Once the potential empirical impacts of the relation between Lean 4.0 and value co-creation are elucidated, it is possible to direct strategies for decision-making and guide efforts by researchers and professionals to deal with the waste mitigation present in the dairy sector.

Lean 4.0 proves to be a potential solution to improve the operational performance of the dairy production system. Lean 4.0, linked to value co-creation, allows the integration of the production sector with consumers, through smart technologies, so new services and experiences can be provided to the consumer market. Additionally, the consumer experience can be stimulated based on Lean 4.0, once the quality specification is highlighted based on data science and smart management control.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes the interrelationship between the Lean 4.0 philosophy and the value co-creation in the dairy ecosystem. In this sense, the study reveals the main contributions of this interrelation to the dairy sector via value co-creation, which demonstrates a new perspective on the complementarity of resources, elimination of process losses and new experiences for the user through digital technologies integrated with the Lean Thinking approach.

This study aims to provide an overall framework that connects and explains a macro-perspective of the findings from the five studies of this special issue. Through this, we aim to answer two main questions: How can Lean and Industry 4.0 be integrated, and what are the outcomes for workers from such integration?

The special issue received 64 papers that were evaluated in multiple stages until this final sample of five papers that describe different facets of the integration between Lean and Industry 4.0 and their relationship with worker activities. In this introduction, we review the main findings of these five studies and propose an integrative view and associated propositions. A discussion provides directions to advance the field further.

The framework shows that when Lean and Industry 4.0 are integrated, companies will face two types of tensions, dialectical and paradoxical, which require different managerial approaches. By managing such tensions, the Lean-Industry 4.0 integration can help improve social performance, as well as develop systematic problem-solving and cumulative learning capabilities. Five important themes for this field of research are outlined: the importance of work routines, legitimation, competence, sense and mental flexibility.

This study brings a new theoretical perspective to the integration of Lean with Industry 4.0-related digital technologies. The results go beyond the usual view of improving operational performance and dig into the effects on workers. It also shows that the integration process relies on and can enhance human capabilities such as learning and problem-solving.

Maintenance represents an indispensable role in the productive sector of the steel industry. The increasing use of operating with a high level of precision makes hydraulic systems one of the issues that require a high level of attention. This study aims to explore an empirical investigation for decreasing the occurrences of corrective maintenance of hydraulic systems in the context of Lean 4.0.

The maintenance model is developed based on action-research methodology through an empirical investigation, with nine stages. This approach aims to build a scenario to analyze and interpret the occurrences, seeking to implement and evaluate the actions to be performed. The undertaken initiatives demonstrate that this approach can be applied to optimize the maintenance of an organization.

The main contribution of this paper is to demonstrate that the applied method allows the overviewing results, with a qualitative approach concerning the maintenance actions and management processes to be considered, allowing a holistic understanding and contributing to the current literature. The results also indicated that Lean 4.0 has direct and mediating effects on maintenance performance.

This research intends to propose an evaluation framework with an interdimensional linkage between action research methodology and Lean 4.0, to explore an empirical investigation and contributing to understanding the actions to reduce the occurrences of hydraulic systems corrective maintenance in a production line in the steel industry.

Prior to managing a company’s processes in the presence of a combination of paradigms, there is a need to understand their underlying interaction. This paper systematically reviews the existing literature that discusses the interaction between lean production (LP) and the fourth industrial revolution (i.e. Industry 4.0). The study aims to understand how the interaction unfolds and whether it is synergistic.

The research relies on a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed articles from Scopus and Web of Science that discuss the interaction between the two paradigms. The final set of articles pertaining to the topic was analysed.

The article presents that the interaction between the two paradigms occurs through a representation of the pillars of the House of Lean (HoL) interacting with the nine technological pillars of Industry 4.0. There is a consensus on the synergistic nexus among the pillars and their positive impact on operational performance. We also demonstrate the weights of the interactions between the two paradigms and the areas of operations management where this interaction takes place through Sankey charts. Our research indicates that the largest synergistic interaction occurs between just-in-time and industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and that companies should invest in IoT and cyber-physical systems as they have the greatest weight of interactions with the pillars of the HoL.

This research facilitates a deeper insight into the interaction between LP and Industry 4.0 by organising and discussing existing research on the subject matter. It serves as a starting point for future researchers to formulate hypotheses about the interaction among the various pillars of LP and Industry 4.0, apply these interactions and test them through empirical research.

It could serve as a guide for managers to understand with which interactions they should start the digitalisation process.

With the rise in discussions on the interaction between the two paradigms, there is still an opportunity to understand the specificity of this interaction. Compared to the initial seminal works on the subject, such as Buer et al. (2018b), which investigated the direction of interaction between the two paradigms, this research contributes to further investigating this specificity and gaining a better understanding of the relationship governing the interaction between LP and Industry 4.0 by delineating the interaction state among the pillars of the two paradigms and its relevant importance.

This study aims to carry out a systematic literature review (SLR) on the integration of Lean, Industry 4.0 and the supply chain or the Lean Supply Chain (LSC) 4.0. The research analyses the current research on the LSC 4.0 concept in an increasingly digitalised world. The authors present the benefits, motivations, critical success factors and challenges of integrating the LSC with Industry 4.0 technologies within this emerging area of research.

An SLR is carried out on how Lean can be integrated with Supply Chain 4.0. Using the search strings of “Lean Supply Chain 4.0,” “Lean Supply Chain Management 4.0” and “Lean Supply Chain Digitalisation,” a review of published literature was carried out via searches on academic databases.

Industry 4.0 has a synergistic effect on the LSC and, depending on the technology and sector applied in, can complement and enhance the LSC. Similarly, the LSC is a precursor for digitalisation. There are considerable implications in the LSC 4.0 for green and sustainable processes.

Organisations can use this study to understand what the LSC 4.0 means to industry, the benefits and motivating factors for implementation, the critical success factors (CSFs) to implementation and the challenges for implementation.

This study adds to state of the art around the LSC 4.0 and future directions in this nascent research area. This study will aid organisations in understanding how Lean, supply chain management and Industry 4.0 can be integrated.

The study proposes to determine the impending challenges to lean integration with Industry 4.0 (I4.0) in manufacturing that aims at achieving desired operational performance. Integrating lean and Industry 4.0 as the two industrial approaches is synergetic in providing operational benefits such as increasing flexibility, improving productivity, reducing cost, reducing delivery time, improving quality and value stream mapping (VSM). There is an urgent need to understand the integrated potential of OPEX strategies like lean manufacturing and also to determine the challenges for manufacturing SMEs and further suggest a strategic roadmap for the future.

The current work has used a combined approach on interpretative structural modeling (ISM) and fuzzy Matrice d'impacts croisés multiplication appliquée á un classment (MICMAC) approach to structure the multiple level analysis for the implementation challenges to integrate OPEX strategies with Industry 4.0.

The research has found that the indulgence of various implementation issues like lack of standardization, lack of vision and lack of trained support, all are the major challenges that inhibit the integration of OPEX strategies with I4.0 technologies in manufacturing.

The research has investigated the internal factors acting as a roadblock to lean and Industry 4.0 adoption. Further studies may consider external factors to lean and Industry 4.0 implementation. Also, further research may consider other operational excellence approaches and extend further to relevant sectors.

This study provides the analysis of barriers that is useful for the managers to take strategic actions for implementing OPEX strategies with I4.0 in smart manufacturing.

The research determines the adoption challenges towards the integrated framework. This is the first study to explore challenges in integrating OPEX strategies with I4.0 technologies in manufacturing SMEs.

The purpose of this study is to identify the prominent research constituents in the domain of integration of Lean manufacturing and Industry 4.0 techniques and analyze the intellectual structure among them.

A bibliometric analysis of articles based on Donthu et al. (2021a) has been adopted to conduct a systematic review of the integration of Lean manufacturing and Industry 4.0 using the Scopus database.

The co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling depicted three clusters and themes around which the research related to the integration of Lean manufacturing and Industry 4.0. Publications related to the topic have majorly focused on the development of conceptual models and frameworks for integrating Lean manufacturing and Industry 4.0, analyzing the compatibility between the two techniques for better implementation of one another and the techniques' combined impact on operational performance.

Most of the review studies related to the domain of integration of Lean manufacturing and Industry 4.0 have adopted a systematic literature review methodology. The present study has tried to infer the intellectual framework of the research being conducted in the said domain using the bibliometric analysis to identify the prominent research constituents in the field and examine the intellectual relationship between them.

Lean and agile are essential supply chain management (SCM) strategies that enhance companies' performance. Previous studies have reported the capabilities of different SCM strategies to enhance performance; however, the emergence of Industry 4.0 technologies has bred focus on the possibility of attaining more levels of operational performance. Despite being demonstrated helpful at enabling supply chain (SC) strategies, the literature linking Industry 4.0 with SCM strategies is still in its infancy. Thus, this work investigates the degree to which “Industry 4.0 technologies” enable the implementation of lean and agile practices and subsequently assesses the potential performance implications of integrating Industry 4.0 technologies with the SC operations.

The work employs an exploratory case study approach using empirical data from selected organisations drawn from an Estonian manufacturing cluster and digital solution providing companies. The data collected via interviews were used to assign numerical scores and subsequently aggregated across the five cases for the research variables of interest. The work is crowned with a model grounded on the cross-case analysis to depict which technologies impact each of the lean and agile practices.

The analysis enabled comprehension of the potential impact and level of importance of the main Industry 4.0 technologies on lean and agile practices and ultimately the potential implication on performance. The findings revealed that the technologies have a high impact on the practices. Although the impacts are of varying degrees, the analysis provides means to identify the technologies with the most significant impact on lean and agile SCM and the sets of practices with the greatest likelihood of being enabled by various digital technologies.

The work presents various lean and agile practices that practitioners can deploy to operations, alongside the technologies that could support the implementation of the practices towards achieving the various performance measures. Also, it provides some guides for the digital solution providing companies towards understanding the SCM practices that can be improved upon by various digital technologies. This enables them to have more saleable proposals for intending companies who might be sceptical about transiting into the digital operation phase.

This is the first attempt to empirically address the connection between Industry 4.0 technologies and the integrated lean and agile strategies despite literature backing of the complementary nature of the two SCM strategies.