Lean methods digitization towards lean 4.0: a case study of e-VMB and e-SMED

In the last decade, industry across the globe has been under a massive change in its manufacturing paradigm triggered by the emergence of concepts such as Industry 4.0. Established streamlining philosophies such as Lean manufacturing had to cope with this paradigm shift. In this regard, expansive literature has developed concepts such as Digital Lean or Lean 4.0 to address such change. This publication fits in this same research stream as it provides a comprehensive and detailed conjunction on how to adapt lean instruments and the concepts of Lean Manufacturing to the Industry 4.0 environment. Two Lean tools/methods are taken as examples in this research to showcase something bigger: the difference between a pure digital conversion of a Lean tool (Visual Management Boards) and a possible “novel” Lean method (Single Minute Exchange of Die), enabled by its digitalization. New ways to apply both techniques are proposed. The analysis done in this study shows the feasibility to upgrade and modernize established Lean tools and methods, improving its efficiency and effectiveness, and also the possibility to give new features and scope to some of them, causing not only an improvement but a transformation.