Lean Manufacturing is widely recognized as the preferred, tried and tested approach to create highly efficient processes in European industry. Its application has led to significant growth in productivity, revenue, employment, and sustainability across an array of sectors. Now, the fourth industrial revolution will change the way factories work - presenting new challenges and opportunities for European manufacturing industry to remain innovative and competitive.LEAN 4.0 will educate the operations managers of the future. We anticipate the European manufacturing industry’s future need for new skills, knowledge and experience required for combining Lean Manufacturing with the disruptive technological innovations of Industry 4.0.LEAN 4.0 is a collaborative initiative between four leading Higher Education Institutions and four industrial enterprise to integrate Industry 4.0 smart technologies with the proven Lean Manufacturing paradigm. The four partner countries face many of the same skill development challenges, and are all preparing to address this significant gap in knowledge and practical experience. Together, LEAN 4.0 shall prepare European Manufacturing for the challenges that lie ahead.The readiness for Industry 4.0 technologies in Northern Europe’s high-value manufacturing industry will be assessed in the discrete manufacturing operations of the four industry partners. LEAN 4.0 will be the reference project on how to link HEI and industry using pilot implementations, where students, academic staff and industry practitioners collaborate to solve challenging, real-world problems, and share their experiences among HEIs and manufacturing companies throughout Europe.
The aims and objectives of LEAN 4.0 are (i) to develop new, innovative, and multidisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning, (ii) to improve entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills of higher education teaching staff and company staff, and (iii) to stimulate exchange, flow and co-creation of knowledge.
Lean is the most successful approach to business improvement of our generation. In addition, the application of Industry 4.0 technologies shows great potential for further business improvement. Several studies indicate the need to create links between Lean and Industry 4.0 technologies to stimulate innovation in the industry. However, there is currently no satisfactory framework combining these two areas, and LEAN 4.0 aims to develop such a framework.
<< Background >> Lean is the most successful approach to business improvement of our generation. In addition, the application of Industry 4.0 technologies shows great potential for further business improvement. Several studies indicate the need to create links between Lean and Industry 4.0 technologies to stimulate innovation in the industry. However, there is currently no satisfactory framework combining these two areas, and LEAN 4.0 aims to develop such a framework. << Objectives >> The aims and objectives of LEAN 4.0 are (i) to develop new, innovative, and multidisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning, (ii) to improve entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills of higher education teaching staff and company staff, and (iii) to stimulate exchange, flow and co-creation of knowledge. << Implementation >> The project is organized in inter-connected work packages (WP), reflecting the strategy by which we will achieve the expected objectives. WP1 and WP2 are preparatory work packages, WP3-WP5 are developments based on outputs from WP1 and WP2, WP6 test the developments results from WP3-WP5 in multiple pilots, WP7 unifies the results, experiences and outputs into a coherent and generalized reference model for manufacturing, WP8 is dissemination of project results and WP9 is project management. << Results >> The main results of the project include:•Self-Assessment Tool for Smart Lean Operations•Taxonomy of Smart Lean Operations and collection of best practices of Process Innovations within Smart Lean Operations•Organizational learning readiness assessment tool•Taxonomy of Network Action Learning•Decision Support System for Smart Lean Operations•Blended Network Action Learning (BNAL) Methodology•Web-based Platform•16 Pilot Projects•Reference Model for Smart Lean Operations