Abstract
PurposeIndustry 4.0 and Lean Production are a successful match in terms of performance improvement. While we understand the combined potential, there is still poor understanding of how companies should embrace digital transformation to make it successful and sustainable, and the role that lean plays in it. In this paper, we investigate how manufacturing companies embark upon digital transformation and how being lean might affect it.Design/methodology/approachWe conducted multiple case studies with 19 manufacturing companies. We identified two clusters of companies according to their Lean maturity, and we assessed digital transformation patterns by analyzing insights coming both from cases and from the literature. Integrating cross-case analysis results, we developed a framework that shows two different digital transformation patterns according to companies’ commitment to Lean.FindingsOur findings first and foremost show the significant role of lean in driving digital transformation. We identify two patterns, namely Sustaining digital transformation pattern, characterized by the pervasive role of lean culture with small and horizontal digital changes, involvement of people and willingness to maintain continuous process improvement, and Disruptive digital transformation pattern, characterized by few and large digital steps that imply a disruptive and radical change in the company system.Practical implicationsEmpirical evidence supports the relevance of the proposed model and its practical usefulness. It can be used to design digital transformation, prepare properly the introduction of Industry 4.0 through a lean approach, and plan the future desired state, identifying the Industry 4.0 technologies that should be implemented.Originality/valueIt is widely recognized that the relationship between Industry 4.0 and lean is significant and positive, yet little evidence was presented to back that. We aim at bringing this debate forward by providing initial empirical evidence of the significant role that lean has on digital transformation, showing how lean drives the digital transformation pattern of companies.
Highlights
Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is increasingly in the spotlight of researchers, economic policymakers and manufacturers (Brennan et al, 2015; Frank et al, 2019; Rossini et al, 2019b)
When we investigated whether the digital transformation is driven by specific performance improvements and if we could detect meaningful differences between clusters, we noted that companies usually aspire to more than one performance improvement while implementing I4.0
The main aim of our research is to investigate how companies embark upon digital transformation and whether, and in case how, Lean Production (LP) plays a role in driving it
Summary
Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is increasingly in the spotlight of researchers, economic policymakers and manufacturers (Brennan et al, 2015; Frank et al, 2019; Rossini et al, 2019b). It is built upon inter-connected machines, intelligent systems and products, inter-related solutions within a company (Koh et al, 2019; Sanders et al, 2017; Tortorella and Fettermann, 2018) and enhanced human-machine interaction (Liao et al, 2017; Sanders et al, 2016). The full terms of this licence may be seen at http:// creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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