Revealing the Content of Industry 4.0: Review of Literature

A fourth industrial revolution is prophesied, and there is a potential for the industrialized world to proactively adapt suitable practices. Despite the large interest from both industry and academia, a drawback with the vast literature on initiatives that tap into the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0 and alike, is the fuzziness when it comes to terminology and content. The terms are mixed up, and sometimes used interchangeable and the constituent parts are not fully described. The purpose of this paper is to present the content of initiatives related to the fourth industrial revolution in a structured manner. This is expected to support understanding for the content of the fourth industrial revolution and thereby facilitate the transformation. The results presented in this paper is based on a traditional literature review. In total 13 relevant review papers were identified. The identified papers were analyzed, and a framework was developed including technologies and design principles. In total, eleven technologies and twelve design principles were identified for Industry 4.0. The most frequently occurring technologies were Cyber physical systems, Internet of Things, and Big data. The most frequently occurring design principles were Smart factory, Service orientation and Sustainability and resource efficiency. A categorization of the content into technologies and design principles clarify and structures the content of Industry 4.0. The developed framework can support academics in identifying, describing, and selecting Industry 4.0 scenarios for further investigations. For practitioners, the framework can give a basic understanding and some guidance in their implementation journey of Industry 4.0.