In today's rapidly evolving industrial landscape, the fusion of digital technologies with traditional manufacturing is driving a revolutionary shift. As Industry 4.0 transforms the sector, the integration of time-tested Lean Management principles with cutting-edge digital innovations has given rise to Lean 4.0 - a strategic approach that elevates production efficiency to new heights

More than a decade ago, the research community embarked on a journey to realize the old vision of Industry 4.0. Part of this vision was to digitize design and manufacturing systems and processes, aimed at advancing their vertical and horizontal integration into decentralized ecosystems across the entire product development value chain.

Sales figures often fail to accurately reflect the true demand observed by retailers. While sales data provides insights into consumer purchasing patterns, it does not capture the full picture of consumer behaviour. These missed opportunities significantly impact retailers' understanding of the actual demand for their products.

Real competition is between supply chains, not companies. Continued uncertainty and turbulence on both the demand-side and the supply-side of business, means firms must invest in effective supply chain management. As organisations have outsourced many of the activities they used to perform in-house, so too has their dependence upon other entities increased.

For both SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk has often discussed that the key for ultimate success is “building the machine that builds the machine,” meaning it is actually the factory that becomes the product, and the output from that factory is a desired feature.

“As we approach the (35th) anniversary of Lean, we see that Lean is both everywhere and nowhere. It is seemingly everywhere in terms of its tools and methods, but virtually nowhere in terms of its use as a comprehensive system of management in large corporations.”

It’s becoming mission critical for large organisations to have a holistic Industry 4.0 strategy, one that leverages Industry 4.0 principles and properly addresses the specific opportunities and challenges they face.

As workers get ready to start their morning shift, they are confronted with a supply shortage which has hit their Siemens’ Mobility factory hard: a critical microelectronics-part was supposed to arrive, but now the supplier has failed to deliver on time.

If people say your manufacturing firm is operating in an ecosystem, what does that mean? Actually, it means quite a lot. It has far-reaching consequences for how you need to think about strategy.

“Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.”

Most manufacturing companies, large or small, have experienced the thrills of a promising digital pilot. Yet many are still struggling to scale digital transformation effectively – especially those operating across many product categories, regions and factories.

Servitization describes the journey that manufacturers take towards advanced services. It is a move away from earning revenues through product sales towards viewing products as a platform for engaging customers in long term, highly profitable, and mutually beneficial relationships. While the benefits are appealing, most companies struggle with the complexity they encounter when they move away from their core business and enter the messy world of service ecosystems.

Our global economy runs in a linear flow. From the uncontrolled extraction of resources, to processing and consumption, this trajectory has been deeply rooted in our economic thinking for decades.

Advanced services are a new route for manufacturers to secure competitive advantage in the market. With rising availability and adoption of digital technology, building an advanced service business model is becoming easier than ever.

Design Thinking as an approach for wicked problem solving and the development of innovative ideas is spreading in organizations throughout the world. What is it about, how does it work, and what are the potential benefits of applying Design Thinking?

How do you start your digital transformation journey and begin implementing ideas and strategies? Even more importantly, how should you activate the workforce to let them embrace digitalisation?

Several industrial organisations worldwide have put into practice both Lean principles and practices to accomplish important transformations towards continuous improvement, value creation and waste elimination, while obtaining superior operational efficiency levels.

The Bullwhip effect (BWE) is among the most central topics in Operations management. In a recent paper, we offer a new network perspective on the BWE.

Innovation is about executing new ideas and converting them into successful business activities. Creativity is about generating the new ideas with which to innovate. It is an innovation pre-requisite, one that is often overlooked in many businesses.

Dr Araz Zirar, Lecturer in Management at Huddersfield Business School, provides a perspective on incorporating HR practices into lean service operations.