Resumo

Since its origins in the 90s, grounded in the pioneering studies at MIT developed by Womack and Jones (1996), the Lean Management Model has demonstrated its advantages and benefits in guiding the adoption of new technologies. Three decades have passed, and the concept has evolved: Lean Management, Lean Design, Lean Process, and Product Development (LPPD), Lean Digital, and Lean Startup are derivations and adaptations of the original concept. Currently, new research started to explore the association of lean concepts with industry 4.0.

Based on the above, the research question of this exploratory study will be: how can Lean Model and the Industry 4.0 (I4.0)concepts' can be combined?. Replying to this question will start a discussion on how the Lean concept can contribute to the I4.0 trend, following the past successful cases of Lean Startup, LPPD, Lean Digital, and other derivations (or combinations) of Lean and management trends. Moreover, the question will contribute to clarify if lean is a guide in the choice of the implementation trajectory or if it is a prerequisite for the integration of technological packages in I4.0.

The lean concept is credited to Krafick (1988) and Womack et al. (1990). Currently, the Lean concept has been permeating various knowledge fields, including I4.0 (Ejsmont et al., 2020). In turn, I4.0 is characterized by technological transformations, artificial intelligence, and the digital revolution, which gives long-term efficiency and production (Wang et al., 2020). Studies are still not clear about the relationship between I4.0 and Lean: if and to which extent the combination can raise a company's results or if one approach is a prerequisite for the other (Prinz et al. 2018).

The Sytematic Literature Review (SLR) based on the structure of Donthu et al. (2021), analyzed 167 publications, showing that the studies combining lean and I4.0 is a novelty. Publications were found from 2015, and the consolidation and clusterization of themes, subjects, key terms, and concepts, as well as the key works, are still under formation. Therefore, at the current stage, it is impossible to confirm that lean is a prerequisite for adopting I4.0 or vice-versa. However, SLR suggests that instead of sequential relationships, those concepts should be studied from an iterative perspective.

Although authors like Dombrowski, Richter, and Krenkel (2017) and Prinz et al. (2018) propose two main perspectives of the Lean concept and Industry 4.0, Lean as a prerequisite for Industry 4.0 or vice-versa, results of the SLR suggest that a third trend should be considered. Instead of considering Lean and Industry 4.0 as sequential introduction processes, practitioners should consider an iterative relationship. This conclusion can also be found in the works of Meudt, Metternich, and Abele (2017), Mrugalska and Wyrwicka (2017), Sanders et al. (2017), and Satoglu et al. (2018).

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