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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.

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 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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how different manufacturing technologies are bundled together and how these bundles influence operations performance and, indirectly, business performance. With the emergence of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies, manufacturing companies can use a wide variety of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) to build an efficient and effective production system. Nevertheless, the literature offers little guidance on how these technologies, including novel I4.0 technologies, should be combined in practice and how these combinations might have a different impact on performance.

Using a survey study of 165 manufacturing plants from 11 different countries, we use factor analysis to empirically derive three distinct manufacturing technology bundles and structural equation modeling to quantify their relationship with operations and business performance.

Our findings support an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary perspective. I4.0 technologies build on traditional manufacturing technologies and do not constitute a separate direction that would point towards a fundamental digital transformation of companies within our sample. Performance effects are rather weak: out of the three technology bundles identified, only “automation and robotization” have a positive influence on cost efficiency, while “base technologies” and “data-enabled technologies” do not offer a competitive advantage, neither in terms of cost nor in terms of differentiation. Furthermore, while the business performance impact is positive, it is quite weak, suggesting that financial returns on technology investments might require longer time periods.

Relying on a complementarity approach, our research offers a novel perspective on technology implementation in the I4.0 era by investigating novel and traditional manufacturing technologies together.

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.

Asserts that there are two forces at work in the business environment that are requiring organizations to rethink their business models: the power of customers and changes in technology. Suggests that companies are moving away from customer‐relationship‐management to customer‐managed relationships. Discusses how successful manufacturing businesses adapt to “high pressure” markets. These organizations leverage advanced manufacturing technologies, such as flexible tooling, computer‐aided design and computer‐integrated manufacturing control systems, to significantly improve their strategic marketing capabilities.

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.

A descriptive survey has been carried out on a total of 103 respondents related to manufacturing companies of different sizes. Data collected were analyzed in order to answer five specific research questions.

The findings from the survey demonstrate that Italian manufacturing companies are in different positions in their journey toward the I4.0 paradigm, mainly depending on their size and informatization level. Furthermore, not all the business functions are adequately involved in this transformation and their awareness about this new paradigm seems quite low because of the absence of specific managerial roles to guide this revolution. Finally, there are strong differences concerning both benefits and obstacles related to the adoption of I4.0 paradigm, depending on the technology adoption level.

Future research should focus on developing case studies about pilot I4.0 practitioners in order to understand the root cause of successful cases. Both managerial and practical references should be developed, helping Italian manufacturing enterprises to consolidate and strengthen their position in global competitive market. Finally, it would be interesting to carry out the same study in other countries in order to make comparisons and suitable benchmark analyses.

Despite scholars have debated about the adoption of technologies and the benefits related to the I4.0 paradigm, to the best of authors’ knowledge, only a few empirical surveys have been carried out until now on the adoption level of I4.0 principles in the manufacturing sector of a specific country.