The applications of Industry 4.0 technologies in manufacturing context: a systematic literature review

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) encompasses a plethora of digital technologies effecting on manufacturing enterprises. Most research on this topic examines the effects in the smart factory domain, focusing on production scheduling. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive research on the applications of I4.0 enabling technologies in manufacturing life-cycle processes. This paper is thus intended to provide a systematic literature review answering the following research question: What are the applications of I4.0 enabling technologies in the business processes of manufacturing companies? The study analyses 186 articles and the results show that production scheduling and control is the process most often investigated, while there is also an increasing trend in servitization and circular supply chain management. Moreover, there is extensive combined use of IoT, Big Data Analytics and Cloud, whose applications cover a wide range of processes. On the contrary, other technology like Blockchain is not as widely discussed in the domain of I4.0. This picture calls for a future research agenda extending the scope of investigation into I4.0 in manufacturing. Furthermore, the results of this research can prove extremely useful for practitioners who wish to implement one or more technologies, providing them with solutions for applications in manufacturing.