How Industry 4.0 technologies can contribute to plant layout design and management: a systematic literature review

Implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies has completely changed design and management of production systems. New technologies are integrated in manufacturing management and act as facilitators to guide the transformation of conventional factories into smart factories. This research has been developed focusing the attention on the importance of Industry 4.0 tools in layout design and management: how they can be applied and the results deriving from their use. The Industry 4.0 principles and the innovations involve several areas of the production systems. The principal aim of this study is to examine Industry 4.0 technologies, with a specific focus on understanding their relative importance in relation to their impact on layout design and management. To this end, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was carried out to analyze Industry 4.0 technologies and investigate their role in layout design and management. The results show how Simulation, Cloud Computing and Big Data are the most used technologies. Indeed, Simulation allows designers to explore complex scenarios, assess the performance of design layouts under various conditions, and test the functionality in a virtual environment before the physical implementation. Cloud computing allows designers to collaborate remotely, access powerful computational resources, integrate data seamlessly, and deploy advanced tools, enhancing design agility and innovation in Layout 4.0. Finally, Big Data helps in extracting valuable insights, making informed decisions, and optimizing required processes.