Manufacturing in the fourth industrial revolution: A positive prospect in Sustainable Manufacturing

TLDR

Industrialization has historically driven pollution and unsustainable production, but the Fourth Industrial Revolution seeks to replace this model with a viable, sustainable manufacturing system that leverages cyber‑physical integration, decentralization, virtualization, and interoperability to improve product life cycles and reduce environmental costs. This paper seeks to describe the main forms of collaboration of Industry 4.0 in relation to sustainability. Smaller batches can lead to a more accurate response to the demand curves and consequently lessen the waste for production.

Abstract

Industrialization throughout history has been one of the main contributors to pollution, disregard for environmental issues, resulting in an unsustainable production model. A change from this context, the imminent new industry model called the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0, aims for a manufacturing system that is both viable and sustainable. This paper seeks to describe the main forms of collaboration of Industry 4.0 in relation to sustainability. Scientific works point out the advantages provided by the new industry model such as improved product life cycles, manufacturing works in an integrated way with the use of cyber-physical systems allied to the principles of this industry, such as decentralization, virtualization, interoperability, among others which lead to more adaptability to natural resources availability and environmental costs. Smaller batches can lead to a more accurate response to the demand curves and consequently lessen the waste for production.