On sustainable production networks for Industry 4.0

Gunnar Prause (), Gunnar Prause () and Sina Atari ()
Additional contact information
Gunnar Prause: Hochschule Wismar, University of Applied Sciences, Technology, Business and Design, Germany
Gunnar Prause: Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Sina Atari: Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 2017, vol. 4, issue 4, 421-431

Abstract: Re-industrialization enjoys a renaissance in Western economies due to the role of the industrial sector for innovation, productivity, and job creation. A very promising approach to bring back competitiveness in production seems to be the fusion of the virtual and the real world leading to smart manufacturing and logistics concepts. In Germany, the leading industrial country in the European Union this approach has been called “Industry 4.0” aiming to develop cyber-physical systems (CPS) and dynamic production networks in order to achieve flexible and open value chains in manufacturing of complex mass customization products in small series. Currently, manufacturing companies gaining experiences in production in networks and smart logistics and develop new organisational structures and business models which better benefit from the new technologies and which adapt faster to the rapidly changing network environments. The modern manufacturing models embrace modular and fractal approaches as well as network-orientation, flexibility and responsiveness. The paper investigates the relationship between networking, organizational development, structural frame conditions and sustainability in the context of Industry 4.0. The research is empirically validated by using data samples from a business reengineering project in an internationally operating high-tech manufacturing enterprise located in Estonia. The empiric analysis is based on semi-structured expert interviews and secondary data together with a case study approach.

Keywords: modular factory; Industry 4.0; production in network; fractals; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
https://jssidoi.org/jesi/uploads/articles/16/Praus ... _for_Industry_40.pdf (application/pdf)
https://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/115 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ssi:jouesi:v:4:y:2017:i:4:p:421-431

DOI: 10.9770/jesi.2017.4.4(2)

Access Statistics for this article

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is currently edited by Manuela Tvaronaviciene

More articles in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues from VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Manuela Tvaronaviciene ().