Industry 4.0 and Lean Supply Chain Management: Impact on Responsiveness

Lean Supply Chain Management (LSCM) emphasizes waste minimization and fewer interruptions while providing a flow of goods, services, and technologies from suppliers to customers and maximizing value added to all agents in the supply chain. Industry 4.0 (I4.0) also pursues efficiency in industrial and service companies and their business partners with the intensive use of Information Technology (IT). These two strategies, LSCM and I4.0, interrelate to produce positive impacts on supply chain responsiveness. This paper conducts a literature review of the role that IT in the I4.0 domain plays in the Lean supply chain. The various technologies are classified according to the impact that they have on responsiveness, that is, on the Lean supply chain strategy’s flexibility and/or response speed. Implications for academia and management are also stated and gaps identified that need to be addressed by future research.