Lean and Industry 4.0: love at second sight

Lean and Industry 4.0 make up the daily menu for Simon Nuttin (Supply Chain & Manufacturing Lead) and Alexander Naessens (Industry 4.0 PhD Researcher and Lecturer). Every day, they help customers to combine Lean and Industry 4.0, and reap the benefits of both. 

The Lean philosophy has been around for quite some time. Can we say that it’s considered old-fashioned?

Simon: “A Lean culture is all about continuous improvement, optimizing processes bit by bit. Critics often argue that you’d be better off with today’s advanced technologies, because they allow you to fast-track that change and realize a full paradigm shift at once.” 

Alexander: “The thing is: sooner or later, you’ll need Lean. A Lean approach makes sure that an Industry 4.0 transformation succeeds.” 

Why is that? And how does that work?

Simon: “Every successful Industry 4.0 transformation combines technological innovation with human adoption and cultural change. Industry 4.0 enables you to make a huge jump forward through the advanced technologies of today. But you can’t just implement them and leave them – that’s just a flashy project without support.” 

Alexander: “For example, Industry 4.0 technology provides production operators with many real-time predictive insights into their manufacturing processes. However, without a continuous improvement mindset and the authority to act on those insights, the value remains unrealized. Human capital is essential to leverage the value of Industry 4.0 technologies – and leveraging human capital, in turn, is a core concept of the Lean philosophy.” 

Simon: “Thanks to that exchange between Industry 4.0 and Lean, our operators have an in-depth knowledge of the production process and how it can be improved. That expertise inspires them to continuously come up with new ideas to further enhance all workflows, taking into account the technology’s full potential.” 

How can organizations successfully integrate both Lean principles and Industry 4.0 practices? 

Simon: “Integrating Lean principles and Industry 4.0 technologies can be challenging, as they often belong to different stakeholder domains within organizations. Lean could be a production management issue, while Industry 4.0 is often on IT’s or OT’s plate – potentially leading to a variety of disjointed projects. Therefore, organizations should approach Lean and Industry 4.0 as enterprise-wide initiatives.” 

“That requires a holistic strategy and vision, and a roadmap that considers both the technological dimension (digitalization, automation, AI, etc.) and the organizational dimension. That means that organizations should embrace a continuous improvement culture as soon as they introduce new technological developments. Don’t wait for adoption hurdles to make things better.” 

Alexander: “In that integrated approach, advanced technologies provide operators with valuable insights, while the continuous improvement culture prepares them to translate those insights into concrete, value-adding actions. With that mindset, organizations can maximize the impact of Industry 4.0, while ensuring alignment with Lean principles – and drive holistic, sustainable company-wide change as a result.” 

“That’s why we involve all employees from the start. We don’t want to initiate a bunch of separate tracks in silos that don’t communicate with one another. And, of course, it should be an end-to-end journey. delaware is a long-term industry partner who can be there for you from start to finish, creating synergies between the technological and the organizational dimension of this transformation.” 

What challenges do you often see in the Lean – Industry 4.0 marriage?

Alexander: “Our research highlights two primary challenges in Industry 4.0 implementations: change management and achieving a return on investment (ROI). As we mentioned earlier, corporate-wide collaboration is essential to create a roadmap. But maintaining that collaboration during implementation remains crucial and poses a significant challenge. When implementing I4.0 projects, technology teams often consider their job ‘done’ once the technology is operational and bug-free. However, this overlooks the crucial phase where value creation should occur.” 

“Instead, performance may initially decline due to the introduction of new, unfamiliar tools and workflows. At this critical point in time, Lean or Operational Excellence teams have to step in. They need to ensure the development of new standard practices and facilitate operator adaptation, so the latter can use the new technology for continuous improvement efforts. This approach fosters both adoption and ROI.” 

Simon: “Lean culture highlights precisely that kind of human-centric manufacturing, so its philosophy is more relevant than ever. It’s up to organizations to give employees easy-to-locate tools, invest in their skills, and encourage them to share their ideas in times of Industry 4.0 disruption. In that way, the Lean approach can even nourish employee satisfaction. An unexpected extra weapon in the war for talent.”