Impact of Industry 4.0 on Lean Methods: and the Business of German and Chinese Manufacturer in China (English Edition)

The paper was my final work of my studies at Tongji University in Shanghai and the Munich University for Applied Sciences. The topic is “Industry 4.0” (German: Industrie 4.0), one of the latest trends shaping the future of manufacturing industry. The approach of this new production paradigm is to set up flexible and self-organising value chains via “Cyber Physical Systems” and the “Internet of Things and Services”. This thesis is divided into three parts. Firstly, the current status of Industry 4.0 in Germany is examined and compared to selected countries and their initiatives. This turned out that Germany brings particularly good preconditions through historical reasons for a successful implementation of Industry 4.0. Furthermore, also the US due to their strong Internet industry and their ability to develop new business models and China due to their leading role in the global economy, bring good conditions for a successful implementation of Industry 4.0 with them. In the following Japan and South Korea are also a part of the investigation. In the second part and at the same time the main part, the possible impacts of Industry 4.0 on Lean methods were examined by comparing them with the six main characteristics and possible future scenarios of Industry 4.0. It turned out that Lean methods, such as TPM, KAIZEN and Kanban particularly benefit from Industry 4.0 and other Lean methods like Takt Time could be displaced entirely. Furthermore, Standardization, Muda and SMED revealed to be as very important for a successful implementation of Industry 4.0. In the last part, the awareness and readiness of German and Chinese companies in China from the automobile sector should be examined with an empirical survey. The results show that the awareness of Industry 4.0 among respondents is high, but the knowledge of Industry 4.0 is still low. Nevertheless, the majority of the survey participants agree that Industry 4.0 is the key enabler to cope with future challenges. Finally a Nine-Step-Guideline to prepare for Industry 4.0 is given.