Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing: potential environmental benefits. The case of China

Abstract

Today we are living in a period characterized by an industrial shift, namely the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0. The latter involves the manufacturing system in particular and allows a shift towards a digitalized, interconnected and integrated production. Smart manufacturing is the application of Industry 4.0 in the manufacturing field, enabling the use of technologies such as IoT, CPS, Big Data, 3D printing and Robotics to enable more flexibility, efficiency, customization as well as improving the quality of manufacturing processes in the smart factory. The revolutionary impacts it determines are several, among which one of the most interesting ones is environmental sustainability. The objective of my thesis is to carry out an analysis of the potential environmental benefits that Industry 4.0 could bring through smart manufacturing processes. This concept is both recent and greatly discussed as we are living a global environmental crisis due to the so far carried out unsustainable growth pattern. First of all, I carry out an overview of the concept of Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing, analysing their features from a global approach. Afterwards, I introduce the core topic of my thesis: is it possible to achieve environmentally sustainable benefits through Industry 4.0? In order to do that, I depict the concept of sustainability and other environmental concerns, afterwards I will focus on the Chinese approach towards environmental sustainability, which is closely linked to the concept of green manufacturing. Made in China 2025 initiative is the concrete example that embodies the two concepts of the core of the thesis: green development and smart manufacturing. The studies I deal with are mostly related to estimations and statistics, which show potential positive environmental results provided by smart technologies. I will refer thus to indicators such as energy and resources consumption, material waste and pollutant emissions, recycling in order to demonstrate that smart manufacturing could be a potential driver for an environmentally sustainable manufacturing pattern.