Smart Manufacturing and Lean Sustainability in the Era of Industry 4.0

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid developments of Industry 4.0 and artificial intelligence (AI) lead industries into the age of smart manufacturing. The backbones of smart manufacturing development are powerful ICT (information and communications technology), IT-integrated automation systems, and new technologies such as CPS (cyber–physical system), IoT (Internet of Things), cloud computing, big data, AI (artificial intelligence), etc. It is becoming increasingly common for manufacturers to accelerate the development of smart manufacturing or intelligent manufacturing.

Meanwhile, the development and realization of sustainability are also enthusiastically promoted. Sustainability is the process of maintaining change in a balanced environment, in which the exploitation of resources, the economic development, the technological development and the business model are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations. Sustainability is evaluated through the following interconnected domains : environment, economic and social. Critical green activities include the effective usage of natural resources, green products, green processes, green logistics, waste reduction and recycling, energy saving and the usage of green energy, emission reduction and pollution prevention.

Lean production has received a great deal of attention for many years as a consequence of the many advantages and financial benefits that have become apparent as a result of the system’s implementation in many industries. According to many critical studies, lean production is the fundamental way forward for smart manufacturing and sustainability. It is therefore clear that the industries need to successfully implement lean production, in order to realize the development of smart manufacturing and sustainability.

In this Special Issue, contributions are welcome on the following topics:

1. The development of Industry 4.0;
2. From Industry 4.0 to smart manufacturing;
3. The development of smart manufacturing;
4. The critical success factors of smart manufacturing;
5. The implementation of smart manufacturing based on lean production;
6. The quality control of smart manufacturing;
7. How to successfully implement sustainability based on the realization of lean production;
8. The critical practices of smart manufacturing;
9. The relations between smart manufacturing and sustainability;
10. The implementation of sustainability;
11. The critical success factors of the implementation of sustainability;
12. The critical practices of the implementation of sustainability;
13. The competitive advantages of smart manufacturing;
14. The advantages and financial benefits of the implementation of sustainability.

Dr. Ching-Chow Yang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Industry 4.0
• smart manufacturing
• sustainability
• lean production
• smart quality control
• critical success factors
• Toyota production system (TPS)
• artificial intelligence (AI)