Essential theoretical concepts in Industry 4.0 research
| Industry 4.0 | A fourth industrial revolution which is the computerization of manufacturing systems. It has cyber-physical systems which are the combination of software and production assets. It includes automation, the industrial Internet of Things, data sharing and cloud computing. It has mainly the following characteristics: interoperability, transparency, technical guidance and independent choices (Jayaram, 2016) |
| Internet of Things (IoT) | A system (objects, processes, data, people, animals or atmospheric phenomena – everything that can be treated as a variable) in which the material world communicates with computers (exchanges data) with ubiquitous sensors (Witkowski, 2017) |
| Big Data | The information asset characterized by such a high volume, velocity and variety to require specific technology and analytical methods for its transformation into value (De Mauro et al., 2016) |
| Internet of Services (IoS) | Service vendors to offer their services via the internet. […] consists of participants, an infrastructure for services, business models, and the services themselves. Services are offered and combined into value-added services by various suppliers; they are communicated to users as well as consumers and are accessed by them via various channels (Hermann et al., 2015) |
| Additive manufacturing /digital manufacturing | When products are built layer-by-layer based on a digital representation of the object, stemming, e.g., from CAD-files or three-dimensional scans (Oettmeier and Hofmann, 2016). In such circumstances, additive manufacturing can support the “smart factory” idea through improved speed to production, manufacturing design freedom, SC reductions, rapid prototyping, and small-scale production experiments (Ghobakhloo, 2018) |
| Digital factory/smart factory/smart firm | A dynamic integrated cyber-physical-human manufacturing system in which the physical resources are implemented as smart things that communicate with each other and with human resources via the Industrial IoT, the Internet of People, and the Web of Things infrastructure (Ghobakhloo, 2018) |
| Cyber-physical systems (CPS) | Integrations of computation and physical processes. Embedded computers and networks monitor and control the physical processes, usually with feedback loops where physical processes affect computations and vice versa (Hermann et al., 2015). CPS are introduced to bridge the gap between the physical and digital divide in IoT systems (Tu et al., 2018a, b) |
| Cloud computing (CC) | A model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction (Mourtzis and Vlachou, 2016) |
| Cloud manufacturing (CM) | A smart networked manufacturing model that embraces cloud computing, aiming at meeting growing demands for higher product individualization, broader global cooperation, knowledge-intensive innovation, and increased market- response agility (Mourtzis and Vlachou, 2016). CC has brought virtualized technologies into large-scale use, it is not only a technical process, as it has made possible to also virtualize and, therefore, internationalize business applications, processes, locations and services (Bruque Cámara et al., 2015) |
| Cloud robotics (CR) | A technology that seeks to build on the cloud concept by exploiting the inexpensive computing power and massive data storage capacity of cloud computing systems, combined with the ubiquitous net connectivity available, currently centered on the benefits of converged infrastructure and shared services for robotics (Bogue, 2017) |
| Virtual value chain (VVC) | A key integration mechanism via dynamic information. Information flows affect a firm’s ability to integrate value-adding operations and improve innovativeness, considering the new and changing role of information. The digital age has seen information functioning as a unique source of competitive advantage. Now virtual supply-chain activities in marketspace can operate completely independent of the physical value chain, emerging blurring of boundaries between virtual and physical markets (Graham and Hardaker, 2000) |
| Industry 4.0 | A fourth industrial revolution which is the computerization of manufacturing systems. It has cyber-physical systems which are the combination of software and production assets. It includes automation, the industrial Internet of Things, data sharing and cloud computing. It has mainly the following characteristics: interoperability, transparency, technical guidance and independent choices ( |
| Internet of Things (IoT) | A system (objects, processes, data, people, animals or atmospheric phenomena – everything that can be treated as a variable) in which the material world communicates with computers (exchanges data) with ubiquitous sensors ( |
| Big Data | The information asset characterized by such a high volume, velocity and variety to require specific technology and analytical methods for its transformation into value ( |
| Internet of Services (IoS) | Service vendors to offer their services via the internet. […] consists of participants, an infrastructure for services, business models, and the services themselves. Services are offered and combined into value-added services by various suppliers; they are communicated to users as well as consumers and are accessed by them via various channels ( |
| Additive manufacturing /digital manufacturing | When products are built layer-by-layer based on a digital representation of the object, stemming, e.g., from CAD-files or three-dimensional scans ( |
| Digital factory/smart factory/smart firm | A dynamic integrated cyber-physical-human manufacturing system in which the physical resources are implemented as smart things that communicate with each other and with human resources via the Industrial IoT, the Internet of People, and the Web of Things infrastructure ( |
| Cyber-physical systems (CPS) | Integrations of computation and physical processes. Embedded computers and networks monitor and control the physical processes, usually with feedback loops where physical processes affect computations and vice versa ( |
| Cloud computing (CC) | A model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction ( |
| Cloud manufacturing (CM) | A smart networked manufacturing model that embraces cloud computing, aiming at meeting growing demands for higher product individualization, broader global cooperation, knowledge-intensive innovation, and increased market- response agility ( |
| Cloud robotics (CR) | A technology that seeks to build on the cloud concept by exploiting the inexpensive computing power and massive data storage capacity of cloud computing systems, combined with the ubiquitous net connectivity available, currently centered on the benefits of converged infrastructure and shared services for robotics ( |
| Virtual value chain (VVC) | A key integration mechanism via dynamic information. Information flows affect a firm’s ability to integrate value-adding operations and improve innovativeness, considering the new and changing role of information. The digital age has seen information functioning as a unique source of competitive advantage. Now virtual supply-chain activities in marketspace can operate completely independent of the physical value chain, emerging blurring of boundaries between virtual and physical markets ( |
Note: It shows the main definitions of the theoretical concepts developed by scholars in the field of study in Industry 4.0, all of these are used to describe the Digital Supply Chain Model in Section 4
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