Exploring Industry 4.0 technologies to improve manufacturing enterprise safety management: A TOPSIS-based decision support system and real case study

Industry 4.0 is changing the traditional manufacturing context, increasing digitalization towards smart production. Safety is one of the most critical issues and companies are approaching its digital transformation from technological and management perspectives. The main criticalities in this transition are due to the different benefits deriving from the impact of each Industry 4.0 technology applied and therefore to the choice of the most appropriate technologies for the specific production system for safety management. In this scenario, the aim of this study is to assist practitioners in the choice of the most appropriate technologies according to the benefits to be obtained and to the constraints dictated by the characteristics of the production system. For this purpose, a Systematic Literature Review has been performed, to gain a comprehensive overview of current or potential application of Industry 4.0 technologies in safety management, identifying the most impactful technologies and defining the key parameters to consider. Based on the obtained results, a Decision Support System (DSS) has been designed, consisting of a flowchart and a TOPSIS-based tool, to identify the best Industry 4.0 technologies and quantify their suitability for safety management, respectively. Finally, the proposed methodology was applied and validated in a real case study of a large food company. According to the final ranking suggested by the DSS, it is possible to consider Cloud as the most impactful Industry 4.0 technology for the safety management system within the specific company, followed by IoT. This result is consistent with data collected from the experts, confirming the effectiveness of the theoretical DSS to investigate the best Industry 4.0 technology adoption.