Journey Readiness of Industry 4.0 from Revolutionary Idea to Evolutionary Implementation: A Lean Management Perspective

In the context of manufacturing technology, continual or continuous improvement has been part of the system from the stone-age to this date. Actually, it is in pursuance of a gradual never-ending change to meet the real-time needs. Objective of this study is to review the changing manufacturing technology starting from a stage of ‘one item at a time’ for decorative art piece to mass production to lean-one piece flow and again back to individual single-item production like an exotic sports car as current-day example. Opportunities, challenges, and risks associated with different technologies are included in the scope of study. The intent of this paper is to find relationship between Lean Automation and Industry 4.0. The paper neither defends Lean manufacturing nor promotes the Industry 4.0 initiatives. Upcoming Industry 4.0 technology has been discussed beyond the present automation and past computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) with their relevant characteristics as enablers. The result indicates that Industry 4.0 will not make Lean obsolete. Both manufacturing systems will stay generating mutual dependency. They will have their specific domain of application based on the product variability and values. Secondary research with method for analysis of existing data has been studied and adopted as a recommended methodology for enhancing the overall efficiency of this research.