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Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and changing market demands, competition for manufacturing industries is increasing and they face numerous challenges. In such a case, it is necessary to use multiple strategies, technologies and practices to improve organizational performance and, as a result, to integrate them for ease of adoption. The purpose of this research is to identify advanced Industry 4.0 technologies, operational excellence (OPEX) strategies and reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) practices. The study also computes their weights, as well as identifies and prioritizes the performance metrics for the same.

A thorough review of relevant articles was conducted to identify 28 OPEX strategies, RMS practices and advanced technologies, as well as the 17-performance metrics. The stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis approach was used to compute the weights of the selected practices, while the WASPAS approach was used to prioritize the performance metrics. While developing the framework, the industry expert’s expertise was incorporated in the form of their opinions for pairwise comparison.

According to the study findings, advanced Industry 4.0 technologies were the most prominent for improving organizational performance. As a result, integrating Industry 4.0 technologies with OPEX strategies can assist in improving the performance of manufacturing organizations. The prioritized performance metrics resulted in the production lead time ranking first and the use of advanced technologies ranking second. This emphasizes the significance of meeting dynamic customer needs on time while also improving quality with the help of advanced technologies.

The developed framework can help practitioners integrate OPEX strategies and advanced technologies into their organizations by adopting them in order of importance. Furthermore, the ranked performance metrics can assist managers and practitioners in evaluating the manufacturing system and, as a result, strategic planning for improvement.

According to the authors, this is a novel approach for integrating OPEX strategies with advanced Industry 4.0 technologies, and no comparable study has been found in the current literature.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the conventional approach to advanced manufacturing initiatives. Buzzwords like smart manufacturing or industrie 4.0 are directly linked to the discussions about the future of industrial activity. Little is said, however, about developed countries actively reinforcing their bets on the relevance of manufacturing.

This study opted for analyzing academic papers and governmental white papers. Somehow similar to those studies on compared experiences, here the US and German initiatives are put into perspective.

The critical interpretation of several works allows us to state that advanced manufacturing experiences consist in a set of policies aiming at industrial and technological leadership in a scenario of fierce competition. The initiatives seek to strengthen manufacturing activities by means of a mission-oriented approach, fostering enabling key technologies.

This paper fulfills an identified need to critically study the advanced manufacturing initiatives. Away from conventional approaches, the paper puts into perspectives the main ongoing initiatives on advanced manufacturing and interprets them as deliberated national efforts to strengthen manufacturing activities by means of enabling technologies. The paper also points out preliminary recommendations for Brazil.

The monograph analyses (a) the potential impact of information technology (IT) on organisational issues that directly concern the personnel function; (b) the nature of personnel’s involvement in the decision making and activities surrounding the choice and implementation of advanced technologies, and (c) their own use of IT in developing and carrying out their own range of specialist activities. The monograph attempts to explain why personnel’s involvement is often late, peripheral and reactive. Finally, an analysis is made of whether personnel specialists – or the Human Resource Management function more generally – will play a more proactive role in relation to such technologies in the future.

Scholars have widely asserted that a firm’s manufacturing technologies must be aligned with its competitive strategy. This study tests the existence of such a strategy‐technology “fit”, determines whether good fit results in better performance, and examines the nature of fit in light of computer controlled or “advanced manufacturing technologies”. For a sample of 399 metal machining firms, a strategy‐technology alignment was found to exist and relate to higher financial performance. Advanced manufacturing technologies were found to both reinforce and alter conventional thinking about the flexibility‐efficiency tradeoff. Specific technologies were found to be uniquely bundled or combined to support specific competitive requirements.

One of the most hyped concepts in the manufacturing industry is ‘Industry 4.0’. The ‘Industry 4.0’ concept is grabbing the attention of every manufacturing industry across the globe because of its immense applications. This phenomenon is an advanced version of Industry 3.0, combining manufacturing processes and the latest Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The main advantage of this paradigm shift is efficiency and efficacy in the manufacturing process with the help of advanced automated technologies. The concept of ‘Industry 4.0’ is contemporary, so it falls under exploratory study. Therefore, the research methodology is thematic narration grounded on secondary data (online) analysis. In this light, this chapter aims to explain ‘Industry 4.0’ in terms of concepts, theories and models based on the Web of Science (WoS) database. The data include research manuscripts, book chapters, blogs, white papers, news items and proceedings. The study details the latest technologies behind the ‘Industry 4.0’ phenomenon, different business intelligence technologies and their practical implications in some manufacturing industries. This chapter mainly elaborates on Industry 4.0 frameworks designed by (1) PwC (2) IBM (3) Frost & Sullivan.

The popular business press, government regulators, environmentalists and the public are calling on operations managers to shift away from their traditional emphasis on pollution control toward pollution prevention when improving environmental performance. Yet, any managerial decision about the level and form of investment in these environmental technologies cannot be made in isolation, but instead must be implemented within the context of other manufacturing investments in process technologies and organizational systems. A survey of two Canadian industries – small machine tools and non‐fashion textiles – revealed evidence that environmental technologies have been regarded as ancillary investments; as investment in manufacturing increased, so did the proportion of that investment directed toward environmental technologies. Further, increased investment in advanced process technologies actually shifted investment away from pollution prevention. In contrast, increased investment in quality‐related organizational systems favored concurrent investment in recycling programs, along with pollution prevention and management systems. Thus, increased investment in quality management offered an important route to expand the implementation of pollution prevention.

Addresses the relationship between firm performance on 15 manufacturing attributes and the extensiveness of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) portfolios that firms adopt. Mail survey data obtained from 116 manufacturing firms in the USA that had adopted a variety of AMT are used in this research. On average, responding firms reported some improvements in manufacturing performance for all variables except changes in average labour cost (total labour cost/number of direct and indirect labour employees). Adoption of AMT tended to result in marginal reductions in the number of operators and marginal increases in average labour costs across all technology portfolio classifications. For all technology groups, firms recorded their highest level of improvement for product quality, and operator output rates/operator productivity. The majority of firms that had adopted both integrated process technologies and integrated information/logistic technologies reported improvements for 14 of the 15 performance attributes covered in this study.

This paper aims to disentangle the mechanism linking digital servitization and manufacturing firm performance. The contributions of the service networks and slack resources are analyzed.

Drawing on a survey of manufacturing firms that have implemented or are implementing digital service projects in China, this paper examines the mediation effect of service networks and the moderated mediation effect of slack resources to capture the role of service networks and slack resources in the relationship between digital servitization and manufacturing firm performance.

Both basic and advanced digital services can equally contribute to manufacturing firm performance. Service networks mediate the relationship between basic digital servitization and manufacturing firm performance. No moderated mediation effect of slack resources is found, but slack resources negatively moderate the effects of basic digital services on service networks and positively impact service networks.

The mediating mechanism of service networks in the relationship between digital servitization and manufacturing firm performance is theorized, and it is clarified that service networks mediate the association between basic digital services and manufacturing firm performance but not advanced digital services. Additionally, there is no significant difference in performance implications when manufacturing firms provide basic versus advanced digital services, answering the call for research on the various types of digital servitization. This paper also identifies firms’ slack resources as the boundary conditions under which basic digital services influence service networks and the positive impacts of slack resources on service networks, bridging the network literature, organizational slack literature and digitalization literature under the framework of service ecosystem research.

To respond to increasing environmental uncertainty, manufacturers are enhancing flexible manufacturing competence (FMC) as a source of competitive advantage. This study aims to extend research on FMC to its antecedent variables by investigating the impacts of advanced manufacturing technology and operations improvement practices (OIP) on FMC.

Using survey data from 273 manufacturing firms, this research tests additive, mediating, and moderating models that relate these variables.

Among three alternative models, the moderating model is best supported. The results indicate that advanced manufacturing technology has a stronger positive impact on FMC when OIP are effectively implemented than when they are not.

The research focuses attention on the antecedent variables to production competence, rather than on the concept and positive performance effect of production competence.

For managers, the issue is not simply purchasing automation but developing OIP to effectively use advanced manufacturing technologies, thereby achieving the magnifying effects of human capital on FMC.

This paper investigates FMC and its antecedent variables by testing three alternative models, and it offers assistance to managers who are implementing advanced manufacturing technologies and OIP.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the implications of organizational knowledge, source of information and functional orientation, resource-based view of the manufacturing and global orientation, on manufacturing practices which include advanced manufacturing strategies.

An empirical study approach has been used to assess the implications of advanced manufacturing strategies on firm performance.

This paper provides a framework for managers to: assess competitive priorities of the industry; identify order winners for the industry; identify key decision areas or practices for improvements; and to assess the role of implications of organizational knowledge on the manufacturing practices.

The limitations are as follows: the issue of organizational knowledge and learning is assessed from manufacturing view point only; plants located all over India are considered for study; and considers plants employing different manufacturing systems and products.

Saturated with the conventional manufacturing technologies, a growing number of small- and medium-scale industries began to explore advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs). Investment in AMTs remains a promising but potentially risky venture. This paper helps the small- and medium-scale industries to adopt viable AMTs and business performance strategies and then provides guidelines for enhancing their competitiveness.

This paper may help all the stakeholders of small- and medium-scale industry.

This paper is based on one of the few studies conducted to assess the implications of advanced manufacturing strategies on firm performance in Indian scenario.