Quality Management Journal

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Industry 4.0 and Lean Six Sigma integration in

manufacturing: A literature review, an integrated
framework and proposed research perspectives

Dounia Skalli, Abdelkabir Charkaoui, Anass Cherrafi, Jose Arturo Garza-

Reyes, Jiju Antony & Alireza Shokri

To cite this article: Dounia Skalli, Abdelkabir Charkaoui, Anass Cherrafi, Jose Arturo Garza-
Reyes, Jiju Antony & Alireza Shokri (2023): Industry 4.0 and Lean Six Sigma integration in
manufacturing: A literature review, an integrated framework and proposed research perspectives,
Quality Management Journal, DOI: 10.1080/10686967.2022.2144784

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QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
https://doi.org/10.1080/10686967.2022.2144784

Industry 4.0 and Lean Six Sigma integration in manufacturing: A literature

review, an integrated framework and proposed research perspectives
Dounia Skallia, Abdelkabir Charkaouia, Anass Cherrafib, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyesc , Jiju Antonyd , and
Alireza Shokrie
a
Faculty of Sciences and Technique, Hassan First University of Settat, Morocco; bEST- Safi, Cadi Ayyad University, Safi - Marrakech,
Morocco; cCentre for Supply Chain Improvement, University of Derby, Derby, UK; dIndustrial and Systems Engineering, Khalifa
University, Abu Dhabi, UAE; eFaculty of Business and Law, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This article explores the literature on lean management (LM), Six Sigma (SS), Industry 4.0 Received 14 July 2022
(I4.0) and their relationship. A systematic literature review (SLR) combined with bibliometric Revised 18 September 2022
analysis was conducted to identify, select and evaluate articles and was supported by con- Accepted 26 September 2022
tent analysis to classify papers into group-discussed clusters. A total of 134 articles were
KEYWORDS
retrieved from relevant databases and publisher engines between 2011 and June 2022. The Digitalization; Industry 4.0;
analysis of these articles enabled us to identify the impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on Lean manufacturing; Lean
Lean SS; the relationship between LM, SS and Industry 4.0 and the implications of their Six Sigma; literature review;
combination on operational excellence. The results show that while a majority of researchers Six Sigma
consider Industry 4.0 to be a driver of LSS and a prerequisite for helping companies access
the data and analytics needed, others find them to be complementary and synergistic.
Similarly, various authors support the idea that LSS could be a facilitator of Industry 4.0.
This study provides an overview of the main research streams in this field and its shortcom-
ings and presents an LSS4.0 framework integrating Lean SS and Industry 4 which will be of
great value to academics and practitioners working in this area.

Introduction and Akdemir 2021) wich have led companies to

rethink their operational processes and manufacturing
Manufacturing companies are facing and continue to
approaches to accommodate advanced I4.0 technolo-
undergo various challenges such as the evolution of
gies and meet customer expectations seeking for smart
customer requirements, e.g., shorter lead times, higher
products and services. Given a series of enabling tech-
product quality and customized products and services,
nologies offered by the new I4.0 paradigm (Culot
among others, increased competition, market share,
et al. 2020; Schwab n.d.), operations management is
financial crisis and economic decline (Antony et al. currently exposed to a significant “shift” of many
2022; Cherrafi et al. 2016; Lameijer, Pereira, and traditional approaches, namely Lean Six Sigma (LSS)
Antony 2021; Psomas and Antony 2019). (Arcidiacono and Pieroni 2018). Manufacturing com-
Competitiveness is the main concern of organizations, panies need to redesign the way they manage proc-
which are continually looking for ways to reduce esses and adapt them to integrate information and
complexity and waste and increase value and reve- physical data into an intelligent workflow. Today, con-
nues. Since the rise of Industry 4.0(I4.0) and related tinuous improvement and digitization are not merely
technologies, additional pressure and challenges have good practices or buzzwords, but rather business
been added to manufacturing companies on how to necessities. The combination of LSS and I4.0 is an
digitally transform operations management structure effective way to address the stated challenges (Jayaram
to compete in a highly digitized business environment 2016). The philosophy of LSS is to design an efficient
(Ghobakhloo 2020a). I4.0 is expected to have a posi- production system that generates less waste and deliv-
tive impact on manufacturing processes and oper- ers high quality products with optimal use of resour-
ational performance (Ali and Xie 2021; Calış Duman ces (Chiarini 2020; Pepper and Spedding 2010).

CONTACT Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes [email protected] Centre for Supply Chain Improvement University of Derby, Derby, UK.
ß 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
2 D. SKALLI ET AL.

Similarly, I4.0 enables the transformation of manufac- the role of Industry 4.0, on whether it is an enabler/
turing tools into smart and efficient ones (Cresnar et driver in the implementation of LSS or the reverse. The
al. 2020), to boost operational performance and cus- results of this review show that researchers agree on
tomer satisfaction. Both LSS and I4.0 paradigms share three views regarding the relationship between LSS and
a common goal, which is improving business per- I4.0: some authors argue that I4.0 can drive continuous
formance (Antony et al. 2022; Lameijer, Pereira, and improvement and is, therefore, a prerequisite for LSS,
Antony 2021). As stand-alone approaches, LSS and others argue that they are complementary, and a few
I4.0 are good and effective drivers for business per- believe that LSS can facilitate the implementation of
formance and process improvement. When combined, I4.0. Industry 4.0 is presented as a driver and enabler of
they have the potential to be an exceptionally power- LSS implementation. The authors can emphasize that
ful tool. Aligning I4.0 technologies with Lean and Six technologies such as cloud computing, Industrial
Sigma (SS) tools will provide enormous potential for Internet of Things, BDA, CPS and machine-to-machine
improvement and help companies achieve better per- communication will enable organizations to have the
formance (Anass et al. 2021; Sodhi 2020; Park et al. ability to better manage LSS projects in time and data
2020; Tissir et al. 2022).The integration of LSS and accessibility (Pasi et al. 2020). An organization that has
I4.0 is gathering the interest of both researchers and Industry 4.0 technologies as dynamic capabilities will be
practitioners. Many authors have been involved in the able to smoothly move its processes and operations
investigation and advancement of this field toward LSS and operational excellence.
(Alexander, Antony, and Cudney 2022; Anass et al. To fill this gap, the main purpose of this article is
2021; Antony et al. 2022; Anvari, Edwards, and to provide a state of the art of literature regarding the
Yuniarto 2021; Arcidiacono and Pieroni 2018; Belhadi integration of the two concepts LSS and I4.0 (LSS4.0)
et al. 2020; Bittencourt, Alves, and Le~ao 2021; Narula using a Systematic Literature Review. Accordingly, the
et al. 2022; Sony 2020; Tissir et al. 2022; Tortorella, research questions that arise are as follows:
Giglio, and van Dun 2019b; Yadav, Shankar, and RQ1: What is the current state of research on the
Singh 2020).While there is a great scientific interest in linkage between I4.0 and LSS?
the current research topic, as evidenced by scientific RQ2: How can I4.0 and LSS be integrated to achieve
conferences and a large number of publications to better operational performance?
date, there are a limited number of articles that focus
This article is structured as follows: Section 2
on LSS and I4.0. A limited number of articles have presents conceptual terminology that guided the
attempted to assess the state of research on the inte- research. Section 3 describes the research method-
gration of LSS and I 4.0 (Antony et al. 2022; Anvari, ology. Descriptive analysis is presented in Section 4
Edwards, and Yuniarto 2021; Arcidiacono and Pieroni while Section 5 describes the bibliometric analysis. A
2018; Bittencourt, Alves, and Le~ao 2021; Duarte, qualitative content analysis to illustrate the research
Cabrita, and Cruz-Machado 2020; Tissir et al. streams is presented in Section 6, whereas in Section
2022).The majority of studies have addressed lean and 7, the conceptual framework is developed and a dis-
I4.0 integration (Al-Futaih and Demirkol 2020; cussion of theoretical elements of our integrated
Antony et al. 2022; Buer et al. 2021; Duarte, Cabrita, model is provided. Also, the research gaps and future
and Cruz-Machado 2020; Mahdavisharif, Cagliano, research directions are proposed in Section 8.
and Rafele 2022; Narula et al. 2022; Prinz, Finally, the conclusion and the research limitations
Kreggenfeld, and Kuhlenk€ otter 2018; Rossini et al. are presented.
2019; Sanders, Elangeswaran, and Wulfsberg 2016)
studied the benefits, drivers, CSFs and challenges of
LSS and I 4.0 integration, theoretically using the litera- Theoretical background
ture review. Authors found that most studies focus on Given the extensive literature on I4.0 and LSS and the
Lean and I4.0 integration and that there is a lack of lit- various definitions, this section aims to present the
erature addressing the challenges and CSFs related to conceptual terminology used in the remaining work.
the integration of LSS and I4.0. These results need to be
proven empirically. Yet, there is no comprehensive
Lean management
study in which drivers, barriers and CSFs for a potential
integrated model are explored empirically. Existing Lean is an organizational philosophy and approach to
knowledge about the potential synergies between the business efficiency developed by the Japanese com-
two concepts is still in its infancy. The literature debates pany Toyota, designed to reduce waste and nonvalue
 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 3

added activities in manufacturing. Lean manufacturing companies. SS can generate higher results when com-
uses a set of tools and philosophies that impacts posi- bined with LM.
tively quality and productivity and reduces manufac-
turing costs (Sanders, Elangeswaran, and Wulfsberg
Lean Six Sigma
2016) including value stream mapping (VSM), Just in
time(JIT), Kanban, Jiduka, among others. LM was The union of the two very powerful approaches to con-
widely applied by both larger companies and small tinuous improvement namely Lean and SS gave birth
and medium-sized businesses and has led to improved to an integrated approach called LSS (Cherrafi et al.
business performance such as reducing waste and 2016). As an integrated methodology, LSS includes the
costs (Cherrafi et al. 2016; Garza-Reyes 2015; Leong speedy capability of Lean through process flow and the
et al. 2019), improving customer satisfaction and robustness of SS through a disciplined and systematic
increasing process efficiency (Bhattacharya, Nand, and approach to problem-solving (Antony et al. 2018). Lean
Castka 2019; Garza-Reyes 2015). Although lean has and SS methodologies are being used and examined as
proven its ability and support for process optimization a whole (Shah, Chandrasekaran, and Linderman 2008).
and operational performance by eliminating waste and The LSS approach can solve complex industrial
problems that generate financial and operational
engaging people in daily process improvement, it does
improvements (Alexander et al. 2021). Manufacturers
not take into account the analysis of process variabil-
are applying the LSS methodology to achieve better
ity and the causes of defects covered by the SS meth-
performance and reduce losses and nonvalue added
odology (Lai et al. 2020). Defects require additional
activities (Panayiotou et al. 2021).
work to be addressed, which results in lost time and
losses. Lean is a state of mind rather than a method-
ology that requires the involvement of people, changes Industry 4.0
in attitude and process improvement wich the need to The term I4.0 refers to the fourth industrial revolution,
be integrated with SS for better process efficiency and which represents a technological alongside an economic,
business performance. Six-Sigma, therefore, aims to sociological and strategic revolution (Arcidiacono and
identify defects, determine their cause and elimin- Pieroni 2018). The advanced technologies of I4.0, enable
ate them. the collection, storage, analysis and exchange of massive
data between man and machine in a fast and efficient
Six Sigma way (Angreani, Vijaya, and Wicaksono 2020; Radziwill
2018).I4.0 enables the design of smart products and
SS is a powerful concept used to achieve continuous services with features such as more insight into cus-
improvement, and identify and eliminate the causes of tomer requirements, better connectivity with customers,
error in processes. Using statistical and nonstatistical and real-time monitoring for better performance(Koh,
tools and techniques, the method addresses process Orzes, and Jia 2019; Tay et al. 2018). The term "I4.0"
variability and deviations. With SS, manufacturers can was first coined in 2011 at the Hannover Fair, with the
achieve greater customer satisfaction while simultan- digitalization of the manufacturing industry as the main
eously maximizing economic gains. After its success goal. Since that time, I4.0 has become a sought-after
in manufacturing companies where it was first intro- topic among experts and academics around the world
duced, SS has been extended to several sectors, e.g., due to its novelty and has given rise to numerous con-
healthcare, public service, construction and education ferences on the topic. Several recent studies have been
(Antony and Sony 2020; Hseng-Long Yeh 2011; involved in the promotion and advancement of know-
Jimenez et al. 2020; Pardamean Gultom and Wibisono ledge on the subject, resulting in interesting papers
2019).SS is well known as a problem-solving approach (Berm udez and Juarez 2017; Bittencourt, Alves, and
using qualitative and analytical tools to develop core Le~ao 2019; Buer, Fragapane, and Strandhagen 2018a;
processes based on the DMAIC or DMADV method- Dogan and Gurcan 2018; Karadayi-Usta 2020; Kolberg
ologies. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, and Z€ uhlke 2015; Powell et al. 2018; Raji and Rossi
Improve and Control while DMADV is the acronym 2019; Rossini et al. 2019; Sanders et al. 2017a, 2017b;
of Define, Measure, Analyze, Design and Verify and is Shrouf, Ordieres, and Miragliotta 2014).I4.0 has been
used when companies need to develop a new product explored in the literature from different perspectives:
or process. While lean thinking brings innovation and definitions, technologies, a roadmap for implementa-
business change, SS does not drive innovation within tion, performance impacts, potential barriers, drivers
4 D. SKALLI ET AL.

and key success factors for practical implementation (Denyer and Tranfield 2009; Tranfield, Denyer, and
and success stories (Angreani, Vijaya, and Wicaksono Smart 2003). A SLR serves as an approach to conducting
2020; Chettri and Bera 2020; Culot et al. 2020; Gallab a comprehensive review of previous and current studies
et al. 2021; Haddud et al. 2017, 2017; Kamble, on a research topic (Vinodh et al. 2020).
Gunasekaran, and Sharma 2018; Karadayi-Usta 2020;
Lee, Bagheri, and Kao 2015; Machado et al. 2019; Raj Research questions
et al. 2020; Schumacher, Erol, and Sihn 2016; Sony and
Naik 2020; 2020; Tay et al. 2018) presented an assess- Given the objectives of the study, the two research
ment of the benefits and challenges of adopting IoT. questions as depicted in the introduction are as follow:
Machado et al. (2019) defined a model to measure RQ1: What is the current state of research on the
manufacturing companies’ readiness for digitalization. linkage between I4.0 and LSS?
Sony and Naik (2020) have focused on the study of RQ2: How can I4.0 and LSS be integrated to achieve
CSFs of I4.0 using a critical literature review and found better operational performance?
10 factors impacting the successful implementation of
I4.0. The authors highlighted the need for specialized
talent and a workforce to manage I4.0 projects. Studies Scope of the study
conducted by Antony et al. (2022) confirmed that I4.0 At this stage, we define the keywords, research time, the
technologies can help improve the performance of com- inclusion and exclusion criteria and the research data-
panies that are already working with the LSS method- bases. The definition of keywords and terms was carried
ology. This manifests the motivation and benefits of out following an iterative process. Terms and synonyms
this integration. associated with "Lean," "SS" and "I4.0” were inventoried
In the recent literature, the terms "digitization," in literature and based on a discussion with senior
"digitalization" and "digital transformation" are closely researchers in the field. Due to the complexity of finding
related to I4.0 and are often used by authors to talk a precise definition and synonyms of the term I4.0, we
about the fourth industrial revolution (Romero et al. have made a considerable effort to search and filter pub-
2018). In our study, we build on this interpretation of lications related to our research topic by examining
I4.0, which means the integration of I4.0 enabling their titles, abstracts and full text. In most cases, this
technologies into manufacturing processes. task can be accomplished by focusing on the most rele-
vant and influential peer-reviewed journals and confer-
Research methodology ences in the research area. Since the advent of the term
I4.0 in 2011, there has been interest from governments,
The purpose of this study is to assess current research industries and researchers around the world (Yin,
on the relationship between Lean, SS and I4.0 and to Stecke, and Li 2018). Such strategies have been devel-
analyze the most relevant articles to identify gaps, con- oped by the governments of the world’s leading indus-
cerns and potential insights for future research. A sys- trial countries, mainly Future Factories by the European
tematic review of the literature (SLR) was performed Union, Internet þ launched by China, Industrial
following the guidelines developed by Tranfield, Internet Consortium created by the United States,
Denyer, and Smart (2003) as described in Figure 1. The Industrie 2025 developed by Switzerland and e-Factory
main reason for adopting the Tranfield model and an designed by Japan (Mrugalska and Wyrwicka 2017;
SLR is to adopt a comprehensive, scientific, methodical Uriarte, Ng, and Moris 2020).
and reproducible design process that allows for a rigor- To define a set of synonyms for “I4.0,” we studied the
ous and efficient synthesis of existing information highest ranked literature reviews on Scopus and the

Figure 1. Research protocol.

 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 5

Web of Sciences addressing I4.0 and we included the systematically searched. In addition, the references of
above names of strategies related to I4.0. To enrich the the selected studies were manually reviewed to check
keyword list, a panel of academics and practitioner that no relevant studies were missed.
experts in the field was approached to support us in
refining and validating the inventory of keywords. The
Papers selection and evaluation
keywords considered are summarized in Table 1.
Searching online databases is now the leading practice The selection and evaluation process was carried out in
to identify the most relevant articles. To cover a wide three phases: (1) elimination of duplicates, (2) evalu-
range of academic publications, the literature was iden- ation of the relevance and finally (3) evaluation of the
tified using the following electronic databases and publi- availability of the articles in full text. A number of 786
cation engines: Scopus, Elsevier, Emerald, Taylor & papers were extracted from databases. By eliminating
Francis, Springer, IEEE and Google Scholar. Table 2 352 duplicated papers, the remaining papers were
describes the inclusion and exclusion selected criteria. assessed for eligibility. The first eligibility filter is about
the relevance of papers. To ensure that the selected
Papers identification articles were relevant to our study, an abstract review
was performed by the authors. The assessment of the
The research of the keywords in titles, abstracts and full relevance of the articles to the subject matter resulted in
article text was carried out from 2011 to May 2022 using the elimination of 292 articles that were considered off-
Boolean operators (AND and OR) in database queries. topic. The second eligibility filter was to assess the
The period was determined owing to the introduction accessibility of the articles. Only articles that were
of I4.0 in 2011 at the Hannover Fair. Papers were identi- accessible in full text were retained. This process
fied according to defined inclusion criteria (Table 2). In resulted in 142 articles being selected for further reading
an effort to verify that all articles on lean manufacturing, and evaluation. Nine articles were excluded because of
SS and I4.0 have been identified, the authors decided to the unavailability of the full text. Finally, 133 articles
create a list of journals that regularly publish articles in were selected for analysis. A databank was generated in
this area. All electronic editions of the International
Excel to codify and classify the selected materials and
Journal of Lean Six Sigma (IJLSS), the International
group them by theory, method, objective, outcomes and
Journal of Quality & Reliability Management (IJQR),
the main discussion areas. The detailed research meth-
International Journal of Production Economics (IJPE),
odology is shown in Figure 2.
Journal of Production Planning & Control (IJPPC),
International Journal of Production Research (IJPR),
Production and Operations Management (POM), were Descriptive analysis
The descriptive analysis focuses on the following
Table 1. Main keywords searched.
five parameters:
Keywords
Lean Six Sigma Industry 4.0 Publication Year (Figure 3): The distribution of
or Lean manufacturing Fourth Industrial revolution or publications by year, to identify the trend in the num-
or Lean I4.0 or ber of studies on the research theme.
or LM 4th Industrial revolution or
or Lean production Digitization or Geography Distribution (Figure 4): Considering the
or LSS Digitalization or affiliation of the first author, we aim to identify the
or Continuousimprovement Smart factory or
Six Sigma Future Factories or country’s most active on the research theme.
Quality management Industrial Internet Consortium or Publications breakdown (Figure 5) and Distribution
Internetþ or
e-Factory across journals (Table 3): Publications breakdown
informs on the proportion of publications by journal,
conference and chapter while the distribution of pub-
Table 2. Research criteria.
lications by journal aims to identify the journals most
Inclusion criteria Peer-reviewed journal publication, conference paper,
book chapter involved in the research theme.
English language Research Types (Figure 6): The purpose is to gain
Paper published between 2011 and June 2022
Articles related to the manufacturing area insight into the research type used in the reviewed
Peer-reviewed literature articles that discuss the combination of LSS and I4.0.
Exclusion criteria Publication in other languages than English
Unpublished papers
Enabling I4.0 technologies for Lean and SS (Figure
Not relevant to the subject. 7): We aim to identify the different technologies dis-
No full text available
cussed in the field of I4.0 and LSS.
6 D. SKALLI ET AL.

Figure 2. Literature review process.

Figure 3. Distribution of publications by years.

Figure 4. Geography distribution.
Distribution of empirical studies across industry
sectors (Figure 8): We seek to identify and define the SS and I4.0 has gained interest and popularity within
industrial sectors most affected by this integration. the research community since 2020 (Figure 3). Through
a depth analysis of the statistics related to the number of
publications in 2020 (57 papers) which is graphically
Year of publication
highest, we notice that only 28% of the publications this
The articles published in the last five years follow a pro- year are related to the main keywords "LSS" and "I 4.0"
gressive tendency, with 75% of publications appearing while the majority of publications focus on the combin-
between 2020 and 2022 indicating that the topic of lean, ation of lean manufacturing and I4.0.
 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 7

Figure 7. I4.0 enabling technologies.

Figure 5. Breakdown of publications by sources.

Table 3. Distribution by source.

Journals Nbr of paper
International Journal of Production Research 14
Production Planning & Control 10
Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management 6
International journal of Lean Six Sigma 6
Procedia CIRP 4
Procedia Computer sciences 4
Procedia Manufacturing 4
Figure 8. Distribution of studies across manufacturing
International Journal of Production Economics 4 Industry sectors.
Total Quality Management & Business Excellence 4
TQM 4
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing 3 relation to the topic. In the second range came the
Technology South America continent represented by Brazil, which
Advances in intelligent systems and computing 3
Production and Manufacturing Research 2 gained the top number of papers published in the
The International Journal of cleaner production 2 field with 12 publications. Developing countries are
Sensors 2
Production and Manufacturing Research 2 less involved. Figure 4 shows the most active countries
Others (13 journals with 1 paper) 13 in the research field.

Distribution by sources
Figure 5 illustrates the breakdown of publications
based on the sources. Journal papers have a predom-
inant aspect when looking at the types of publications
(87 papers). Fifty-five percent of the journal articles
reviewed were published in four major journals (Table 3):
International Journal of Production Research (IJPR),
Figure 6. Distribution by search method.
International Journal of Lean Six Sigma (IJLSS),
Production Planning and Control (PPC) and Journal of
Geographical distribution Manufacturing Technology Management (JMTM). The
Figure 4 presents graphical information on the geo- IJLSS held an active position in this area as it published
graphical distribution of papers based on the affili- 7% of the papers included in this study.
ation of the first author. Europe is by far the leading Moreover, Taylor and Francis is the leading pub-
continent in scientific discussion and studies on the lisher in this field (30%), represented by two journals
integration of I4.0 and LSS headed by Germany (12 IJPR and PPC. Presumably, research on the integra-
articles) and Italy (12 articles). It is explained by the tion of LSS and I4.0 has appeared in a range of highly
number of conferences organized since 2016 in ranked journals.
8 D. SKALLI ET AL.

Classification by research type empirical studies have examined manufacturing com-

panies in automotive (38%), followed by metal indus-
The articles are categorized into five areas: Research
tries (25%), food (15%) and textile (12%)while the
Article, Literature Review, Case Study, Survey and
chemical, heavy and electronics industries have attracted
Miscellaneous. Figure 6 shows that 43% of the articles
addressed the topic in a conceptual way (24% of the less attention from researchers (10%) and classed under
literature review articles and 19% of the publications others. The results reveal that 40% of papers were con-
were research articles). The remaining 57% used more ducted in the manufacturing environment with no spe-
empirical research techniques, including case studies cification of the sector are placed in multisectors.
(14%), simulations (8%), surveys (25%) and 10% fall
into the "miscellaneous." Bibliometrics analysis
The bibliometric analysis serves as a tool to create,
Enabling I4.0 technologies for lean and SS visualize and analyze maps based on network data
Regarding enabling technologies, the selected articles (Laengle et al. 2020). We conducted a bibliometric
are classified into three categories. First, some articles analysis using VOS software. Three co-occurrence net-
deal with several technologies, which means that sev- works have been evolved to identify the relationship
eral digital technologies can be used simultaneously in between the concepts discussed: the coauthor network,
LSS projects second, articles that deal with only one abstract co-occurrence terms and keyword clusters.
technology, and finally, articles that do not address
any technology. Figure 7 presents the most discussed Coauthorship analysis
I4.0 technologies with either LSS, SS or Lean. 36% of
articles mentioned Big Data Analytics (BDA)’s ability In terms of coauthorship analysis, we have set three
to support lean manufacturing and smart LSS while as the minimum of papers published by authors, 27
the Internet of Things (IoT) came in second, account- have been found to meet the criteria, but they are not
ing for 23% of articles that discussed LSS 4.0 and connected to each other. The largest connected group
Lean 4.0. Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) and simula- has five authors, as shown in Figure 9. We conclude
tion follow in third place with 15% and 12% of the that there is a poor connection and collaboration
papers on smart lean and smart LSS. Finally, Artificial between author clusters, which explains the novelty
Intelligence (AI) accounts for 8% of the articles. The and scarcity of the topic. This may result in a lack of
IoT, BDA, AM, AI and CPS are identified as the sig- productivity and research intensity in this area and
nificant I4.0 that affect the LSS4.0 integration This can be explained by the avoidance or inability of
result indicates that there is significant interest in authors working in combined disciplines due to the
using different new technologies, but especially BDA. scarcity of the topic. Hence, a collaboration between
This can be due to the fact that multinational compa- authors is greatly recommended.
nies have a high preference for the application of this
technology (Makris et al. 2019). BDA offers the possi- Abstract occurrence density visualization
bility to save, exploit and integrate practical solutions
to current business problems in a timely manner. Big Figure 10 shows the abstract occurrence density visu-
data techniques, that is, video mining, machine learn- alization represented by three clusters. Ten was set as
ing and text mining support the identification of the minimum number of occurrences of a word,
problem causes for better decision-making by provid- hence, 15 of the 1287 terms match this criterion and
ing in-depth information about the process (Dogan eleven most relevant words were selected. The red
and Gurcan 2018). cluster is the most prominent and represents the inte-
gration between lean and I4.0 while the green cluster
related to LSS and the blue cluster representing I4.0
Distribution of studies across manufacturing
are discussed separately.
industry sectors
Figure 8 shows the distribution of papers by manufac-
Keywords’ occurrence
turing sector. This distribution suggests that the eval-
uated papers cover several different sectors. There is a The main purpose of the keyword occurrence analysis
predominance of automotive manufacturing industries is to assess the most used terms and their interactions.
for both LSS and I4.0 studies. The majority of By setting the minimum number of occurrences for
 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 9

Figure 9. Coauthorship cluster network.

Figure 10. The abstract cluster network.

the keywords to three, we noticed that out of 100 key- spreadsheet, including the title, research objective,
words, 18 reached the criteria. However, 11 of the concepts discussed and I4.0 technologies discussed,
most relevant keywords were selected (Figure 11). The among others. Next, we clustered the articles accord-
most frequently used word was "I4.0," followed by ing to common themes. As a result, three main
"lean manufacturing" and "LSS." I4.0 was linked to research foci emerged: (1) the relationship between
almost all other keywords, especially "lean." Indeed, Lean Six Sigma and I4.0; (2) the effects of combining
the I4.0 tools par excellence are IoT and Big data. I4.0 and LSS; and (3) performance (outcomes). The
That is to say, numerous articles have addressed the researchers have been focused on analyzing the rela-
link between lean, SS and I4.0, indicating the rele- tionship between LSS and I4.0 and the performance
vance of this integration. gathered through descriptive analysis and empirical
studies, while integration model and implementation
issues were neglected.
Content analysis
A content analysis’s main purpose is to identify,
Industry 4.0 and LSS correlation
organize and categorize ideas about a particular topic.
As such, an inductive content analysis was conducted, The majority of publications have discussed the cor-
where data was extracted and coded into an Excel relation and synergies between LSS and I4.0. An
10 D. SKALLI ET AL.

Figure 11. Keywords cluster network.

analysis of the relationship between LSS and I4.0 is researchers have studied the impact of this combin-
necessary before an implementation framework can be ation on firm performance in general and on the
proposed (Antony et al. 2022). The detailed correla- value chain and operational excellence in particular.
tions that emerged from the literature are explained in Previous studies (Acosta-Vargas et al. 2020; Buer et al.
Subsection 7.3 and summarized in Figure 13. 2021; Kolberg and Z€ uhlke 2015; Prinz, Kreggenfeld,
and Kuhlenk€ otter 2018; Yadav, Shankar, and Singh
I4.0 impacts on LSS concept 2020) have suggested that the combination of Lean
and I4.0 positively supported organizational perform-
One of the objectives of our study is to investigate ance and lead to improvements.
how Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies can enhance LSS Sodhi (2020) stated that by using IoT techniques
implementation. This section illustrates the impact of with LSS methodology, the company can achieve
I4.0 technologies on the LSS subfields using the higher performance by taking effective decisions and
DMAIC methodology. Based on the authors’ insights, producing high-quality products. Prinz, Kreggenfeld,
we evaluate and report in Table 4 whether the tech-
and Kuhlenk€ otter (2018) have predicted that product-
nology has a moderate (þ), strong (þþ) or no (0)
ivity can be increased by Lean and I 4.0 implementa-
impact on each DMAIC step and the corresponding
tions. This means that the integration of LSS and I4.0
activities. Some technologies have a cross-cutting
promises a smarter, more efficient future for manufac-
impact on the DMAIC process, others affect only one
turing processes. Due to the paucity of research and
step. The authors can highlight the evolving nature of
empirical studies on the LSS and I4.0 integration
literature on this topic. Most of the potential effects
benefits, the increase in productivity and process effi-
studied have been found to improve specific phases or
sub-phases of LSS, which will ultimately lead to ciency can only be roughly estimated. McKinsey esti-
improved design and performance of LM/SS. For mates that switching to automated production 4.0.
example, in their literature review study (Ahmed, Can boost productivity by 45–55%. Referring to
Page, and Olsen 2020), the authors indicated that these authors (Buer et al. 2021; Kolberg and Z€ uhlke
simulation techniques impact positively and directly 2015) I4.0 is expected to drive companies’ operational
all DMAIC stages, mainly the analysis, improvement performance by improving productivity and process
and control phases, due to their ability to investigate efficiency, increasing profits, flexibility and competi-
and capture potential problems and improvement. tiveness. The literature shows that the combination
has a positive effect on improving performance indi-
cators which should be confirmed empirically.
Performance (outcomes) Based on the content analysis and the results of the
Another cluster we identified was the LM, SS and I4.0 previous section, we developed an integrated model
combination outcomes. We can highlight that Section 7.
 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 11

Table 4. Conceptual combination between DMAIC and I4.0 technologies.

BD /AI IoT CPS Sensors 3D printing Simulation Cloud AR/VR Robotics
Define  Define problem þþ þþ þþ þþ þþ þþ
 Define the goal þþ þþ þþ þþ þþ þþ
 Processmap þþ þþ þþ þþ þþ
 Defineprocesscustomer þþ þþ þþ þþ þþ
 Customer expectations. þþ þþ
Measure  Mappingcurrentprocess þþ þþ þþ þ þþ
 Defineprocess performance þþ þþ þþ
 Find the source of the problem þþ
 Collect data þþ
Analyze  Processanalysis þþ þþ þþ
 Data analysis þþ þþ þþ
 Potential causes analysis þþ þþ þþ
 Value streammapping þþ þþ þþ
Improve  Brainstormproblems solutions þþ þþ þþ
 Mapping of problems solutions þþ þþ
 Select and implement solutions þþ
 Measureimprovement þþ
Control  Value þþ þþ þþ þþ þþ
 Flow þþ þþ þþ þþ þþ
 Pull þþ þþ þþ þþ
 Perfection þþ þþ þþ

An emergent framework to integrate LSS Our model starts with antecedents representing the
and I4.0 enablers, i.e., the factors that make this integration
possible. An analysis of the organization’s antecedents
In light of the lack of a structured and comprehensive
is necessary. The questions that arise at this stage are:
model for lean, SS and I4.0 integration, we propose a
How are organizations prepared for the digitalization
framework for the implementation of these three con-
cepts, based on the combination of theoretical ele- of LSS and what is the vision and strategy for moving
ments resulting from the literature review. The toward digitalization? In other words, the company
framework is illustrated in Figure 12 and follows a should identify its weaknesses and strengths related to
classic and iterative development process approach, the four dimensions of organization, people, process
from initial inputs and requirements to the final out- and technology by assessing their maturity level and
comes and benefits, where the traditional LSS-DMAIC clearly defining its objectives and expected results. It
process is translated into smart LSS called in this is necessary to assess the skills and competencies of
study LSS4.0 model. The framework outlines the driv- the existing workforce. As stated by (Machado et al.
ers, barriers, synergies, challenges and critical success 2019), digital awareness, skills and organization are
factors that are the primary component of the inte- the first steps for any digitalization initiative. The suc-
grated model LSS4.0. A good understanding of these cessful deployment of every continuous improvement
factors helps to define a managerial response on how initiative depends heavily on the people which repre-
best to implement LSS4.0. The proposed framework is sent the most strategic asset of any company (Buer,
part of a reflection and conception of the digital Fragapane, and Strandhagen 2018a; Ciano et al. 2019).
transformation of the LSS concept as a quality Conversely, we find drivers, barriers, CSFs and the
improvement tool, which tends to go beyond a relationship between LSS and I4.0 and their synergies
technological perception in favor of a strategic vision on the top of our model representing the theoretical
of an intelligent and digital LSS. The objective of the basis for such integration. Having knowledge of these
framework is to support companies in their journey factors and how the LM, SS ad I4.0 may impact or
of development and transformation into digital LSS. complement each other is crucial. Then, we found
The proposed model (Figure 12) is structured by cou- that the core of this model includes LM, SS, I4.0 tech-
pling the three building blocks: lean and SS concepts, nologies and the digitization process to explain how
I4.0 enabling technologies and digitalization. I4.0 this integration will address the tradeoffs between
means the digitalization of industry. Hence, in our these components to improve operational perform-
model, I4.0 is represented by digital technologies 4.0 ance, The use of digital technologies and the resulting
and digitalization detailed in Digital strategy, Digital innovation can address many of the traditional chal-
maturity and Digital transformation and resumed in 3D. lenges of LSS and provide benefits. Companies must
12 D. SKALLI ET AL.

Figure 12. The proposed smart LSS framework.

Figure 13. Comprehensive theoretical elements of the LSS4.0 model.

choose the right technology investments based on improving safety and facilitating maintenance and
their specific value-added potential and the most suit- training. I4.0 stands for the digitalization of the pro-
able I4.0 technologies that support LSS projects’ duction and value chain (Weking et al. 2020). In the
achievement and improve operations. For example, context of I4.0, before its practical deployment, a stra-
augmented reality (AR) can have a direct impact on tegic digitalization plan must be defined (Haddud and
business performance by reducing time and avoiding Khare 2020; Machado et al. 2019; Schumacher, Erol,
human error, increasing productivity and quality, and Sihn 2016). This involves assessing the company’s
 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 13

digital maturity and defining the future action plan by performance of the manufacturing process (Cherrafi
clearly integrating the objectives to achieve (Kane et al. 2016), cost reduction and profitability
et al. n.d.). Determining the level of digital maturity is (Ghobakhloo 2020b) and market image (Stentoft et al.
critical to defining the appropriate digital strategy and 2021). The discussed drivers are summarized in Table
the most appropriate and prioritized digital technolo- 6. Conversely, the barriers that may hinder the LSS4.0
gies. Being a smart manufacturer or having smart implementation are financial constraints, poor man-
operations management does not imply deploying all agement support, low awareness, resistant behaviors
I4.0 technologies. Referring to the literature, every and lack of skills, which are also the main barriers to
digitalization project starts by defining an I4.0 strategy I4.0 implementation (Butt 2020; Sony et al. 2021;
and objectives to which the smart and digital trans- Khan and Turowski 2016) presents some I4.0 adop-
formation will lead. Companies need to adapt their tion barriers that include lack of expertise, lack of
strategies in the current digital revolution to remain quantified financial benefits and lack of skilled labor.
competitive (Helfat and Raubtischek 2018; Tallon The factors that emerged from the literature were
et al. 2019). Since each manufacturing company has regrouped into five family factors: managerial, envir-
its own process and operations management, it will onmental, people, financial and technological and
have a digital strategy and goals specific to each scen- listed in Table 14.
ario. Hence, organizations must define their digital
strategy according to their business model and need
CSFs
to place digital at the heart of their business strategy.
To overcome the human resources resistance, a It is worth noting that the barriers to the LSS concept
change management strategy must be defined, in have been widely discussed in the literature. However,
order to allow a seamless shift to a digital manage- Industry 4.0, which was only mainstreamed in 2011
ment system (Fernandez-Carames 2019). The objective following an initiative launched by a group of business
of I4.0 is to digitalize the industry which concerns and industry, academia and government leaders in
suppliers, corporate, operations, products and custom- Germany, is still recent. The main objective of the
ers. Digital transformation means the integration of I4.0 initiative was to promote German manufacturing
emerging digital technologies to solve complex prob- companies and improve their competitiveness and
lems and increase performance. (Butt 2020). Digital business performance. Nevertheless, I4.0 faces many
transformation is a complex time and cost challenge. obstacles, including cybersecurity management, appro-
It is seen as a more general term that encompasses priate skills and high investment costs. Thus, studies
changes to business models, operations, processes and on its barriers remain limited, especially those where
skills to take full advantage of the deployment of new I4.0 is combined with LSS. (Sony et al. 2021) have
technologies (Machado et al. 2019). Finally, we find empirically investigated the CSFs of implementing
the performance at the edge of the model, represent- I4.0 in both manufacturing and services. Narula et al.
ing the result of the integration of the three concepts (2022) studied the critical factors and subfactors for
(Lean, Six Sigma and Industry 4.0). The outcomes I4.0 adoption in manufacturing industries and
involve performance and capabilities improvement to observed that nontechnical factors including "organ-
achieve represented by KPIs. Considering the follow- ization, people, culture, skills" and "strategy, leader-
ing drivers, barriers, CSFs, synergies and benefits dis- ship" are the most prioritized, whereas technical
cussed below, a detailed comprehensive theoretical aspects of technology, digital factory, operations, proc-
element of the LSS4.0 model is proposed in Figure 13. esses, applications are less prominent among
the authors.
Drivers and barriers
Benefits
Drivers are the factors and reasons that motivate com-
panies to embark on a project, while barriers are the As evidenced in the literature, both LSS and I4.0 have
factors that can impede successful implementation. a positive impact on business performance and, when
Given that our research topic is an emerging research combined, they should lead to greater operational
area, there is a lack of literature addressing motiva- excellence. Mrugalska and Wyrwicka (2017) stated
tions for the integration of LSS and I4.0, also empir- that lean manufacturing integrated with I4.0 can help
ical evidence is missing. The most quoted drivers achieve great flexibility of production systems and
behind LSS adoption are improving efficiency and processes, realizing complex products and supply
14 D. SKALLI ET AL.

chains. (Kiel et al. 2017) have identified various bene- correlation between LM, SS and I4.0.The findings are
fits of I4.0 mainly, productivity and efficiency categorized into three relationship perspectives: (1)
increase, expanded knowledge sharing and collabora- Lean-SS is a prerequisite for Industry 4.0. Buer,
tive labor, agile and flexible process, better regulations Strandhagen, and Chan (2018b) explain that compa-
conformity, better customer satisfaction, cost savings nies with a relatively advanced Lean maturity level are
and increased business profits. more likely to implement I4.0 in emerging economies.
Rossini et al. (2019) carried out a survey of 108
European manufacturers that have already adopted
Synergies between LSS and I4.0
lean philosophy. Their conclusions align strongly with
In terms of the link between LSS and I4.0, the authors (Buer, Strandhagen, and Chan 2018b) and imply that
point out in this section the synergies discussed by manufacturers aiming to integrate Industry 4.0 need
researchers. Several studies state that the two concepts to simultaneously implement lean manufacturing to
are synergic and influence each other. Table 5 sum- drive process improvements. The same findings were
marizes the main findings in the literature on the stated by Tortorella, da Silva, and Vargas (2018) as a

Table 5. Summary of literature papers.

Research
Title Authors Year Country stream Source
Lean Six Sigma and Industry 4.0 Tissir et al. (2022) 2022 Morocco LSS I 4.0 Total Quality Management &
combination: scoping review Business Excellence
and perspectives
The evolution and future of lean Antony et al. (2022) 2022 UAE LSS I 4.0 TQM Journal
Six Sigma 4.0
An integrated smart, green, Touriki et al. (2021) 2021 Morocco L I4.0 Journal of Cleaner Production
resilient, and lean manufacturing
framework: A literature review
and future research directions
Combining lean and agile Ding, Ferras Hernandez, and Agell 2021 Spain L I4.0 Production Planning & Control
manufacturing competitive Jane (2021)
advantages through Industry 4.0
technologies: an
integrative approach
The link between Industry 4.0 and Buer, Fragapane, and 2018 Norway LI4.0 International Journal of
lean manufacturing: mapping Strandhagen (2018a) Production Research
current research and
establishing a research agenda
Integration between Lean, Six Kumar et al. (2021) 2021 India LSS I4.0 Int. J. Six Sigma and
Sigma and Industry Competitive Advantage
4.0technologies
Toward the proposition of a Lean Tortorella et al. (2020) 2020 Brazil LI4.0 Journal of Manufacturing
Automation framework: Technology Management
Integrating Industry 4.0 into
Lean Production
Investigating the Integration of Mahdavisharif, Cagliano, and 2022 Italy L I4.0 Applied sciences
Industry 4.0 and Lean Principles Rafele (2022)
on Supply Chain: A Multi-
Perspective Systematic
Literature Review
Lean Six Sigma in Smart Factories Anvari, Edwards, and 2021 UK LSS I 4.0 International Journal of Emerging
based on Industry 4.0 Yuniarto (2021) Trends in Energy and
Environment
Exploring relationships between Javaid et al. (2022) 2022 L I4.0 Industrial Robot
Lean 4.0 and
manufacturing industry
Industry 4.0 and Lean Pagliosa, Tortorella, and 2019 Brazil L I4.0 Journal of Manufacturing
Manufacturing: A systematic Ferreira (2019) Technology Management
literature review and future
research directions
When Industry 4.0 meets Lean Six Sodhi (2020) 2020 India LSS I 4.0 Industrial Engineering Journal
Sigma: A review
Toward “Lean Industry 4.0”–Current Ejsmont et al. (2020) 2020 Poland L I4.0 Cogent Business & Management
trends and future perspectives
Industry 4.0 tools in lean Gallo et al. (2021) 2021 Italy L I4.0 Procedia Computer Science
production: A systematic
literature review
(Continued)
 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 15

Table 5. Continued.
Research
Title Authors Year Country stream Source
Industry 4.0 triggered by Lean Bittencourt, Alves, and Le~ao (2021) 2020 Portugal L I4.0 International Journal of
Thinking: insights from a Production Research
systematic literature review
Integration of continuous Vinodh et al. (2020) 2020 India LSS I 4.0 The TQM Journal
improvement strategies with
Industry 4.0: a systematic review
and agenda for further research
Big data in Lean Six Sigma: a Gupta, Modgil, and LSS I4.0 International Journal of
review and further Gunasekaran (2020) Production Research
research directions
A strategic roadmap for the Butt (2020) 2020 UK LSS I 4.0 designsmdpi
manufacturing industry to
implement industry 4.0
« Bringing together Lean and Uriarte, Ng, and Moris (2020) 2021 SWED L I4.0 International Journal of
simulation: a comprehensive Production Research
review ». .
Lean 4.0, Six Sigma-Big Data Rifqi et al. (2021) 2021 Moroccco LSS I 4.0 Advances on Smart and
Toward Future Industrial Soft Computing
Opportunities and Challenges: A
Literature Review
Lean Six Sigma and digitize Nicoletti (2013) 2013 Italy LSS I 4.0 International Journal of Six Sigma
procurement and Competitive
Continuous improvement programs Fortuny-Santos Santos et al. (2020) 2020 Brazil L I4.0 Proceedings of the 4th
and industry 4.0: Descriptive ICQEM Conference
bibliometric analysis
The link between Industry 4.0 and Buer, Strandhagen, and 2018 Norway L I4.0 International Journal of
lean manufacturing: mapping Chan (2018b) Production Research
current research and
establishing a research agenda
Design of cyber physical system Sony (2020) 2020 Namibia LSS I 4.0 Production
architecture for industry 4.0 &ManufacturingResearch
through Lean Six Sigma:
conceptual foundations and
research issues
Assessing the synergies between Fortuny-Santos et al. (2020) 2020 Spain L I4.0 Procediamanufacturing
lean manufacturing and
Industry 4.0
Ergonomic analysis in lean Brito et al. (2019) 2019 Portugal L I4.0 In book: Lean Engineering for
manufacturing and industry 4.0- Global Development
A systematic review
The Lean Production System 4.0 Dombrowski (n.d.) 2018 Germany LI4.0 IFIP International Conference on
Framework – Enhancing Lean Advances in Production
Methods by Industrie 4.0 Management Systems
Contact points between Lean Six Sordan et al. (2022) 2021 Brazil LSS4.0 International Journal of Quality &
Sigma and Industry 4.0: a Reliability Management
systematic review and
conceptual framework
Stories Told by Publications about Salvadorinho and Teixeira (2021) 2021 Portugal LI4.0 MDPI
the Relationship between
Industry 4.0 and Lean:
Systematic Literature Review
and Future Research Agenda
Big data in Lean Six Sigma: a Gupta, Modgil, and 2020 Spain LI4.0 International Journal of
review and further Gunasekaran (2020) Production Research
research directions
Enhancing Six Sigma methodology Ahmed, Page, and Olsen (2020) 2020 Australia SS4.0 International Journal of Lean
using simulation techniques: Six Sigma
Literature review and
implications for future research
When Industry 4.0 meets Lean Six Sodhi (2020) 2020 LSS4.0 Industrial Engineering Journal
Sigma: A review
Industry 4.0 and lean management: Sony (2018) 2018 LI4.0 Production and
a proposed integration model ManufacturingResearch
and research propositions
16 D. SKALLI ET AL.

Table 6. Summary of drivers, barriers, CSFs and benefits from literature papers.
Factors Drivers Barriers CSFs Benefits References
Improvinge efficiency and performance X Belhadi et al. 2020; Burggr€af et al. 2019; Kamble,
Gunasekaran, and Dhone 2020; Sanders,
Elangeswaran, and Wulfsberg 2016; Tortorella
et al. 2019c
Reducing cost and losses X Amjad, Rafique, and Khan 2021; Antony et al.
2022, 2018; Gupta, Modgil, and
Gunasekaran 2020
Market increase X Cherrafi et al. 2016; Sony et al. 2021; Touriki
et al. 2021
Customer satisfaction x Antony et al. 2018; Cherrafi et al. 2016; Sony
et al. 2021
Financial factors: High investement cost, x Al-Futaih and Demirkol 2020; Kumar, Singh, and
Economic and financial charges, Lack of Dwivedi 2020
financial support and resources
Managerial factors: Lack of management support X Raj et al. 2020
and comittement
Employee factors: Lack of expertise , lack of X Angreani, Vijaya, and Wicaksono 2020; Gill and
motivation, Lack of skills and workforce training VanBoskirk 2016
Environmental factors: culture and resistance X Alexander, Antony, and Cudney 2022; Raj et al.
to change. 2020; Schumacher, Erol, and Sihn 2016)
Technological factors: Technological constraints, X Stentoft et al. 2021
Cyber security
Soft factors: 1.Leadership and management X Antony et al. 2022; Belhadi, Touriki, and Elfezazi
involvement 2.Defined objectives and 2019; Cherrafi et al. 2017; Javaid and Haleem
communication 3.Corporate culture 4.Financial 2020; Kumar 2007; Lameijer, Pereira, and
resources allocation 5.Appropriate skills and Antony 2021; Pozzi, Rossi, and Secchi 2021;
expertise 6.Digital job instructions Sony and Naik 2020; Yadav, Shankar, and
Singh 2020
Technical factors: Use of applicable and suitable x Antony et al. 2022; Pozzi, Rossi, and Secchi 2021;
tools and Technologies, IT architecture and Sony and Naik 2020; Sony et al. 2021; Yadav,
infrastructure, Cyber security Shankar, and Singh 2020
Cost, Quality and Productivity X Haddud et al. 2017; Kiel et al. 2017; Lameijer,
Pereira, and Antony 2021; Mohamed 2018;
Olaitan et al. 2019; Sony et al. 2021
Organizational capabilities(Flexibility, x Amjad, Rafique, and Khan 2021; Belhadi et al.
agility, resilience) 2020; Cherrafi et al. 2016; Kamble,
Gunasekaran, and Dhone 2020; Lameijer,
Pereira, and Antony 2021; Moghaddam et
al. 2018.

result of a survey of 110 Brazilian manufacturing LM. (Tortorella et al. 2021) Investigate the moderating
companies. (2) Industry 4.0 and Lean-SS are mutually effect of I4.0 technologies on lean supply chain practices
interactive. According to some studies, lean/SS and I4.0 and performance improvement through a survey of 147
interact with each other and their combination posi- Brazilian manufacturing companies. The results con-
tively affects performance (Anass et al. 2021; Anvari, firm that I4.0 has a positive impact on lean and
Edwards, and Yuniarto 2021; Buer et al. 2021) (Anass improves performance. Industry 4.0 technologies have
et al., 2019) conducted a survey in a Moroccan context changed how organizations operate and react face to
to study the connection between LSS and I4.0. The find- operational gaps. Sensors used in the IoT, which collect
ings show that LSS and I4.0 are synergic and compat- data at all levels of the manufacturing chain, are an
ible. Similarly, a survey of manufacturing companies important driver of innovation. This data helps to
(Anvari, Edwards, and Yuniarto 2020) studied the rela- improve the analysis level in DMAIC approach
tionship between Lean, plant digitization and oper- (Arcidiacono and Pieroni 2018).
ational performance. The results show that Lean and We synthesized drivers, barriers, CSFs and benefits
I4.0 are synergic and their combination leads to better found in the literature in Table 6.
operational performance. The authors confirmed
empirically the complementarity effect of Lean and I4.0
on company performance. (3) I4.0 supports and Research gaps, implications for practitioners
increases the efficiency of Lean Six Sigma. In an empir- and future research directions
ical study (Kamble, Gunasekaran, and Dhone 2020;
Research gaps and future research directions
Wagner et al., 2017) investigated the impact of I4.0 on
LM based on a survey of 115 Indian manufacturing The literature review provided us with in-depth know-
firms and found that I4.0 positively and directly impacts ledge about the research work related to the LSS4.0
 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 17

concept. Few studies introduced LSS with I4.0, the empirically the drivers and the challenges of LSS4.0.
research work is more focused on the lean combined We highly recommend the study of this integration
with I4.0 rather than the potential integration of LSS model for SMEs. The proposed framework can be
and I4.0. The academic community’s interest in the used in subsequent studies to conduct empirical stud-
Lean 4.0 topic, revealed by the results of this study, is ies to develop and validate the integration model of
in line with the results of the SLR study conducted by LSS and I4.0. Structural equation modeling can be
Tissir et al. (2022). We recommend more studies to performed to analyze the effect of I4.0 on LSS and
empirically validate the existing findings. The reasons Operational excellence.
for the industry’s delay in its digital journey include
the lack of a roadmap that provides guidance for this Implications for practitioners and researchers
transformation, the lack of awareness of digital capa-
bilities and the lack of required skills among employ- The findings of the SLR study presented in the pro-
ees and stakeholders. Based on the results, we identify posed framework will guide manufacturing companies
gaps (Figure 14) in the literature. in their journey toward operational excellence. The
We listed the future research paths for LSS4.0 study identifies the relationships between I4.0 technol-
(Figure 15). We suggest that future studies explore ogies and LSS and the key I4.0 technologies discussed
in the literature to achieve integration leading to
improved operational performance. Understanding the
potential of digital technologies such as the IoT,
cloud, big data, 3D printing and simulation, among
others, will assist managers in driving smart and
digital continuous improvement trends in their pro-
duction systems.
This article provides five main implications for
both theory and practice.

 It is a good background about LSS4.0

 The literature review provides a comprehensive
overview of the topic
 It describes the drivers, motivations, barriers, CSFs
and impact of the novel technologies on LSS
 It can be used as a baseline for future
Figure 14. Research gaps. research studies.

Figure 15. Future research perspectives.

18 D. SKALLI ET AL.

Figure 16. The emerging LSS4.0 trends.

 A conceptual framework for LSS4.0 implementa- elements of an integration model. We proposed a

tion is proposed that can serve as a roadmap for structured and integrated conceptual model for the
future work. combination of the two paradigms LSS and I4.0 in the
context of manufacturing companies. The model will
The insights gained from this study will inform be applicable, independently of the industry, the area
future research programs on the integration of LSS4.0 or the size of the business. We proposed a clear and
with other management strategies such as Green man- coherent conceptual framework, which provides a
ufacturing, Resilience and Agility. We identified five structural synthesis of the literature findings and
emerging LSS4.0 trends (Figure 16). describes the relationships among the key concepts
explored in this study and is supported by the results
Conclusions of the review. The framework will help managers to
align I4.0’s advanced technologies with the existing LSS
The purpose of this study was to explore the relation- data-driven methodology and guide future researchers
ship between Lean Manufacturing, SS and I4.0 and to know emerging themes and existing collaborative
investigate the current state of research by conducting opportunities in this research area. The limitation of
a SLR. We identified 139 articles published between this article is the subjectivity of the article selection.
2011 and May 2022 that were related to our research Also, we have limited our review to the manufacturing
field. Several researchers in this area have examined area. Publications on LSS and I4.0 are scarce and lim-
quality management with emerging I4.0 technologies ited, as the research topic is an emerging area and still
from a holistic perspective. However, literature in its infancy. Furthermore, as Industry 4.0 was
focused on combining LSS with I4.0 technology com- launched in Germany, there may have been relevant
ponents is scarce. Therefore, this study explores this publications in the German language that we missed
area with a focus on LSS at the source. To the best of since we only consider articles published in English.
our knowledge, there is one systematic review article
presenting a comprehensive review and classification
of the literature, focusing specifically on the topic of Disclosure statement
LSS4.0. Rigorous bibliometric approaches revealed No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
new insights that have not been fully evaluated else-
where. Results show that LSS and I4.0 are mutually
About the Authors
synergistic and compatible. The literature has mapped
the links between LSS and I4.0 from three different
perspectives: “LSS as the basis for I4.0,” “I4.0 as an Dounia Skalli is a research scholar at FST-
enabler of LSS” and “I4.0 and lean complement each SETTAT, Hassan First University,
Morocco and an Industrial engineer from
other.” Further empirical studies that include case
ENSA Safi, Cadi Ayyad University,
studies and surveys must be conducted to confirm Morocco. She has more than 8 years of
and validate the findings. This review identified the experience as a QSE Manager and lead
literature trends and gaps to define the theoretical auditor in the Oil and Gaz industry, she
 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 19

actually doing PhD in the area of Lean Six Sigma and Chains, Circular or Closed-Loop Operations and Supply
Industry 4.0. Her research interests include Lean Six Sigma, Chains, Sustainable and Green Manufacturing, Industry 4.0
industry 4.0, operational excellence, sustainibility in the 4.0 technologies application in operations and supply chains,
era, circular economy and digital maturity. Lean Management, Quality Management & Operations
Excellence and Innovation Management.

Abdelkabir Charkaoui PhD in Logistics

and SCM. Professor of Operations Jiju Antony is recognized worldwide as a
Management and SCM at Hassan I leader in Lean Six Sigma methodology for
University, Faculty of Science and achieving and sustaining process excel-
Technology - Settat, Morocco. Department lence. He is currently serving as a
of Mechanical Engineering, Laboratory of Professor of Industrial and Systems
Industrial Management and Innovation Engineering at Khalifa University in Abu
(LIMII). He is the head of the research Dhabi, UAE. He is a Fellow of the Royal
team: Supply Chain Management and Operations Statistical Society (UK), Fellow of the
Management and the editor in chief for the Journal of Chartered Quality Institute (CQI), Fellow of the Institute of
Operations Management, Optimization and Decision Operations Management (FIOM), Fellow of the American
Support (JOMODS). His research areas of interest are oper- Society for Quality (ASQ), Fellow of the Higher Education
ations management, logistics performance, and Lean Academy, Fellow of the International Lean Six Sigma
Manufacturing maturity. Institute, Fellow of the Institute of the Six Sigma
Professionals (ISSP) and an Academician of the
International Academy of Quality (IAQ). He is a Certified
Anass Cherrafi is an Associate Professor at Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and has trained over 1200
EST-Safi, Cadi Ayyad University, people as Lean Six Sigma Yellow, Green and Black Belts
Morocco. Holding a Ph.D. in Industrial from over 20 countries representing over 170 organizations
Engineering, he has nine years of industry in the last 10 years. Professor Antony has coached and
and teaching experience. He has published mentored several Lean Six Sigma projects from various
a number of articles in leading inter- companies in the UK ranging from manufacturing, service
national journals and conference proceed- to public sector organizations including the NHS, City
ings, and has been a Guest Editor for Councils, NHS 24, Police Scotland, ACCESS, Business
special issues of various international journals. His research Stream, and a number of Universities. Professor Antony has
interests include Industry 4.0, green manufacturing, Lean authored over 500 journal, conference and white papers and
Six Sigma, integrated management systems and supply 12 text books. He has won the outstanding contribution to
chain management. Quality Management Practice Award in 2019 from the
Chartered Quality Institute (UK); Life time Achievement
Award for his contribution to Lean Six Sigma from the
International Lean Six Sigma Institute (UK) in 2020 and
Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes is a professor of
Outstanding Contribution to Six Sigma Practice award from
Operations Management and Head of the
the Institute of Six Sigma Professionals, UK in 2021. His
Center for Supply Chain Improvement at
book on Ten Commandments of Lean Six Sigma: a practical
the University of Derby, UK. He is actively
guide for senior managers has won Walter Mazing Book
involved in industrial projects where he
Price in 2021 (International Academy of Quality, USA) and
combines his knowledge, expertise and
Crosby Medal (American Society of Quality, USA) in 2022.
industrial experience in operations man-
agement to help organizations achieve
excellence in their internal functions and supply chains. He
has also led and managed international research projects Alireza Shokri is an Associate Professor
funded by the British Academy, British Council, European (Reader) in Operations and Supply Chain
Commission and Mexico’s National Council of Science and Management and the subject group leader
Technology (CONACYT). As a leading academic, he has of "Operations and Supply Chain
published over 200 articles in leading scientific journals, Management" in the Newcastle Business
international conferences and seven books. Prof. Garza- School at Northumbria University in the
Reyes is Associate Editor of the Int. J. of Operations and UK. Prior to the current position, Alireza
Production Management, Associate Editor of the Journal of was the programme leader for the BA
Manufacturing Technology Management, Editor of the Int. (Hon) International Business Management Programme.
J. of Supply Chain and Operations Resilience and Editor- Before joining Newcastle Business School in 2011, Alireza
in-Chief of the Int. J. of Industrial Engineering and had different practitioner roles including supply chain man-
Operations Management. Areas of expertise and interest for ager, quality manager, and ISO9001 internal consultant in
Professor Garza-Reyes includeOperations and Production food sector. Alireza completed his PhD in Lean Six Sigma
Management, Supply Chain and Logistics Management, application within food distribution SMEs in 2011 and since
Lean and Agile Operations and Supply Chains, then he is working as an academic. Alireza is currently lead-
Sustainability within the context of Operations and Supply ing the "Global Operations and Supply Chain
20 D. SKALLI ET AL.

Competitiveness" Research Interest Group with academic from a pilot study. In International conference on inte-
members across the globe. Alireza is also member of editor- grated design and production, 613–9. Cham: Springer.
ial board for the “International Journal of Lean Six Sigma". Angreani, L. S., A. Vijaya, and H. Wicaksono. 2020.
As the principal investigator, Alireza currently led different Systematic literature review of Industry 4.0 maturity
projects funded by the British Academy and Innovate UK. model for manufacturing and logistics sectors. Procedia
He is also a co-investigator of a multi-disciplinary global Manuf., System-Integrated Intelligence – Intelligent,
EU-funded (1m Euros) project as part of "Horizon 2020" Flexible and Connected Systems in Products and
called "GETM3 Project". Alireza’s research focuses on Lean Production. Presented at the Proceedings of the 5th
Six Sigma and its application in service and manufacturing, International Conference on System-Integrated Intelligence
Lean Six Sigma integration with Supply Chain Management, (SysInt 2020), 52, 337–43. Bremen, Germany. doi: 10.1016/
Industry 4.0, HR and Sustainability, Supply Chain Quality j.promfg.2020.11.056
Management and process improvement and Lean Antony, J., and M. Sony. 2020. An empirical study into the
Management. His research has been published in inter- limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma in manu-
national leading/excellence level journals in his research facturing and service organisations. International Journal
including "International Journal of Operations and of Quality & Reliability Management 37 (3):470–93. doi:
Production Management (ABS 4). Alireza is the member 10.1108/IJQRM-07-2019-0230.
of Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) as the practitioner. Antony, J., O. McDermott, D. Powell, and M. Sony. 2022.
Alongside that, Alireza is the Fellow of Higher Education The evolution and future of lean Six Sigma 4.0. The
Academy (FHEA). Alireza is also a certified Lean Six Sigma TQM Journal doi: 10.1108/TQM-04-2022-0135.
Green belt with professional capability of leading on Lean Antony, J., S. Gupta, V. M. Sunder, and E. V. Gijo. 2018.
Six Sigma projects. Alireza is keen on working with local, Ten commandments of Lean Six Sigma: A practitioners’
national and international businesses and he is the strong perspective. International Journal of Productivity and
believer on "Research in Practice". Performance Management 67 (6):1033–44. doi: 10.1108/
IJPPM-07-2017-0170.
ORCID Antosz, K., and D. Stadnicka. 2018. Possibilities of mainten-
ance service process analyses and improvement through
Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes http://orcid.org/0000-0002- six sigma, lean and industry 4.0 implementation. IFIP
5493-877X Advances in Information and Communication Technology
Jiju Antony http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8197-5736 540:465–75. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-01614-2_43.
Anvari, F., R. Edwards, and H. Agung. 2020. Lean Six
Sigma in smart factories based on Industry 4.0.
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