The goal of this paper is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature about the sustainability of digitalization in the energy sector in order to capture the main challenges and trends in the transition towards it. The bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature was carried out by interrogating the Scopus database, using a set of keywords considered relevant for the analyzed field and for the goal of the proposed research. The purpose of the study was, on the one hand, the depth of the research into these topics during the 2013−2021 period, in terms of the number of scientific papers, the topic, abstract and keywords associated, the geographical area of origin and the authors’ affiliation and on the other hand, an analysis of the existence of possible links between these topics formulated through three hypotheses. The results obtained reveal the researchers’ concerns for digitalization in the energy sector, the existing correlations between the keywords analy... [more]

This paper presents a literature review of recent research on introducing the Industry 4.0 approach to improving energy efficiency, especially in the wood industry. While researchers focus on processes, service, and customer concepts, the effect on energy consumption is less addressed in these studies and applications. This paper focuses on previous works that discuss how to apply Industry 4.0 concepts to energy issues, such as to achieve better efficiency and performance for the industry in general and the wood industry in particular. The complexity of the study requires a multistep development. First, we define each concept separately and the relationships between them. Second, we apply a search algorithm to find related articles with specific terms, and then use the PRISMA method to select the most important ones, eliminating duplicates and excluding articles that do not mention energy efficiency and Industry 4.0 in the manufacturing or wood industry. Third, we explain and categoriz... [more]

In recent decades, climate change and a shortage of resources have brought about the need for technology in agriculture. Farmers have been forced to use information and innovation in communication in order to enhance production efficiency and crop resilience. Systems engineering and information infrastructure based on the Internet of Things (IoT) are the main novel approaches that have generated growing interest. In agriculture, IoT solutions according to the challenges for Industry 4.0 can be applied to greenhouses. Greenhouses are protected environments in which best plant growth can be achieved. IoT for smart greenhouses relates to sensors, devices, and information and communication infrastructure for real-time monitoring and data collection and processing, in order to efficiently control indoor parameters such as exposure to light, ventilation, humidity, temperature, and carbon dioxide level. This paper presents the current state of the art in the IoT-based applications to smart gr... [more]

The design and maintenance of a reliable communication system, especially in harsh working conditions for the oil and mining industry, brings many challenges. With the use of a video transmission system, one can monitor the crew and their working environment. Broadband over power line−power line communication (BPL-PLC) seems an ideal medium for such a service, since it enables the use of the existing wired infrastructure for supplementary applications. In this paper, we perform a set of simulations for a dedicated wired medium as well as analyses of a visual data transmission system, designed to deliver video content with quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). We investigate a set of video sequences at 480 × 270 resolution under varying network conditions, including signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and bit error rate (BER). We perform a subjective evaluation study of video content transmitted over our simulated communication link. The re... [more]

This article outlines an integrated functional safety and cybersecurity evaluation approach within a framework for business continuity management (BCM) in energy companies, including those using Industry 4.0 business and technical solutions. In such companies, information and communication technology (ICT), and industrial automation and control system (IACS) play important roles. Using advanced technologies in modern manufacturing systems and process plants can, however, create management impediments due to the openness of these technologies to external systems and networks via various communication channels. This makes company assets and resources potentially vulnerable to risks, e.g., due to cyber-attacks. In the BCM-oriented approach proposed here, both preventive and recovery activities are considered in light of engineering best practices and selected international standards, reports, and domain publications.

The aim of the study is to identify, map and assess the maturity and impact level of the specific energy-oriented economy and other SMART management concepts and social, technological, finance (economical), environmental, and communication (S.T.F.E.C.) trends which arose from the dynamic development and spread of the Industry 4.0 revolution on processes of effective competitiveness and the creation of modern enterprises. The article presents data and information obtained thanks to an in-depth review of the literature (extensive desk research), as well as that obtained as part of the conducted CAWI pilot study. The authors aim to search for answers to three specific research questions, concluding that recently, special attention is paid to such issues as co-creation and co-production, energy-oriented and circular economy, eco-energy, and sustainability. The findings of this study clearly show that in the SMART WORLD era, there is a growing interest in cooperation, co-creation, co-produc... [more]

The industry is a key driver of economic development. However, changes caused by introduction of modern technologies, and increasing complexity of products and production, directly affect the industrial enterprises and workers. The critics of the Industry 4.0 paradigm emphasized its orientation to new technologies and digitalization in a technocratic way. Therefore, the new industrial paradigm Industry 5.0 appeared very soon and automatically triggered a debate about the role of, and reasons for applying, the new paradigm. Industry 5.0 is complementing the existing Industry 4.0 paradigm with the orientation to the worker who has an important role in the production process, and that role has been emphasized during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this research, there is a brief discussion on main drivers and enablers for introduction of these new paradigms, then a literature-based analysis is carried out to highlight the differences between two paradigms from three important aspects—people, or... [more]

The entire industry is changing as a result of new developments in digital technology, and maintenance management is a crucial procedure that may take advantage of the opportunities brought about by industrial digitalization. To support digital innovation in maintenance management, this study intends to meet the cutting-edge necessity of addressing a transformation strategy in industrial contexts. Setting up a customized pathway with adequate methodologies, digitalization tools, and collaboration between the several stakeholders involved in the maintenance environment is the first step in this process. The results of a previous conference contribution, which revealed important digitalization variables in maintenance management, served as the foundation for the research approach herein suggested. We lead a thorough assessment of the literature to categorize the potential benefits and challenges in maintenance digitalization to be assessed in conjunction with the important digitalization... [more]

The topic of Industry 4.0 is more actual for various companies worldwide. Its impact is anywhere in company and government areas. Due to the individual parts of Industry 4.0, such as digitalization and robotization, we express changes impact on human resource management, where the most changes are defined. This contribution is focused on human resource management in the context of the application of Industry 4.0 in engineering companies operating in the Czech Republic and Germany. The main objective of the paper is to define potential connections between Industry 4.0 and its areas with the forfeiture of professions and preparedness for potential job changes. We employed a primary research approach with in-depth interviews and a questionnaire survey to reach a defined goal. The interviews were aimed at top managers and a questionnaire survey of ordinary employees and students/temporary workers. According to the gained results, there exist relevant statistical dependencies between Indust... [more]

In the context of Industry 4.0, the lean−green manufacturing system has brought many advantages and challenges to industrial participants. Security is one of the main challenges encountered in the new industrial environment, because smart factory applications can easily expose the vulnerability of manufacturing and threaten the operational security of the whole system. It is difficult to address the problem of the brittleness factor in manufacturing systems. Therefore, building on vulnerability theory, this study proposes a vulnerability index system for lean−green manufacturing systems in a manufacturing company in the context of Industry 4.0. The index has four dimensions: human factors, equipment factors, environmental factors, and other factors. The Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach was used to calculate the degree of influence, the degree of being influenced, and the centrality and causes of the factors. The causal relationships and key influences... [more]

Scheduling production is an important decision issue in the manufacturing domain. With the advent of the era of Industry 4.0, the basic generation of schedules becomes no longer sufficient to face the new constraints of flexibility and agility that characterize the new architecture of production systems. In this context, schedules must take into account an increasingly disrupted environment while maintaining a good performance level. This paper contributes to the identified field of smart manufacturing scheduling by proposing a complete process for assessing the robustness of schedule solutions: i.e., its ability to resist to uncertainties. This process focuses on helping the decision maker in choosing the best scheduling strategy to be implemented. It aims at considering the impact of uncertainties on the robustness performance of predictive schedules. Moreover, it is assumed that data upcoming from connected workshops are available, such that uncertainties can be identified and model... [more]

One of the keys to the success of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is to empower machinery with cyber−physical systems connectivity. The digital twin (DT) offers a promising solution to tackle the challenges for realizing digital and smart manufacturing which has been successfully projected in many scenes. Electrical machines and drive systems, as the core power providers in many appliances and industrial equipment, are supposed to be reinforced on the verge of Industry 4.0 in the fields of design optimization, fault prognostic and coordinated control. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the DT modelling method and the applications in electrical drive systems. Firstly, taking the high-speed permanent-magnet machine drive system as an example, multi-disciplinary design fundamentals and technologies, aiming at building initial mechanism and simulation models, are reviewed. The state-of-the-art of DT technologies is figured out to serve for high-precision and multi-sc... [more]

One of the biggest challenges of a modern enterprise is finding a balance between achieving environmental goals and being competitive in the era of Industry 4.0 requirements. The digital revolution is forcing companies to overcome various challenges that contribute to reducing energy consumption. Micro and small enterprises carry out activities in the field of energy efficiency by implementing measures to save energy and reduce total energy consumption. However, these activities are limited by many barriers to resources, which means that these activities are much smaller than those in large companies. The purpose of this study was to assess the performance of micro and small enterprises following environmental objectives in improving energy efficiency. The research study, based on a structured and standardized survey questionnaire, was conducted with the use of the CATI technique between April and May 2022 among the owners of micro and small enterprises operating in Poland. The study s... [more]

The implementation of Industry 4.0 technology and meeting the expectations of employers, the labour market, and, in fact, sustainable development are new challenges for industry employees, especially for their knowledge and skills. The changes introduced during industrial revolutions have always affected the job market and employees’ required competencies. The same can be said for the latest industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, in which the human factor plays an important role, mainly because new challenges are posed by human beings’ role in digitised reality. Our research aimed to identify the employee competencies that are required in the context of Industry 4.0. We investigated two groups of respondents (employees and students). These groups were subjected to a comparative analysis of their digital, technical, social and personal competencies. As a result of the analysis, we identified the highest-ranked competencies in defined groups. Our results show that technical and soft skills... [more]

The analyses presented in the publication allowed, on the basis of the data collected, development of an econometric model for the Polish steel industry from the point of view of the relationship between heat and energy management in the steel production process. The developed model is the main novelty of the paper. The main objective of the study was to develop an econometric model of Poland’s heat and energy economy. The following research questions were raised: Is there an econometric model describing heat consumption (intensity) in the steel industry in Poland in relation to steel production and the energy economy? What are the relations between heat intensity and energy prices and steel production in Poland? How might the current energy crisis affect steel production? In the analysis we used data of energy and heat management in the Polish steel industry. An econometric model was developed of the dependence of heat consumption (Yt) on electricity prices (X1t) and steel production... [more]

Systems for determining the position of objects inside buildings have a wide range of applications, such as the surveillance of people’s movements in hospitals, and of goods or mobile robots in warehouse spaces or production halls. Hence, there is a need for the development of methods that could be applied for those purposes. This paper presents the results of research on an experimental system for localizing people being evacuated from a building. The proposed solution was designed as a part of the building evacuation management system. The method used for finding location belongs to the class of proximity-type methods and is based on Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) information of Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) devices. The devices used to build the system (BLE receivers) and the evacuee’s wristband (BLE transmitters) are low-budget electronic modules. The paper presents preliminary research and the process of selecting data processing methods, as well as the results of tests of... [more]

The Industry 4.0 idea influences the development of both charging stations and electromobility development, due to its emphasis on device communication, cooperation, and proximity. Therefore, in electromobility development, growing attention is paid to chargers’ infrastructure density and automotive electric vehicles’ accessibility. The main goal of this scientific paper was to present the electromobility development represented in the number of charging stations and its infrastructure development calculations. In this study, the sequence of methods was used to indicate and explore the research gap. The first was the Structured Literature Review (SLR) variation method. The second method was the classical tabular comparison of gathered results. The third research method was a cluster analysis based on secondary data with cross-country comparisons of the number of charging stations and electric cars. Therefore, this paper presents a theoretical discussion and practical business implicati... [more]

A communication and control architecture of a multifunctional technology for flexible manufacturing on an assembly, disassembly, and repair mechatronics line (A/D/RML), assisted by a complex autonomous system (CAS), is presented in the paper. A/D/RML consists of a six-work station (WS) mechatronics line (ML) connected to a flexible cell (FC) equipped with a six-degree of freedom (DOF) industrial robotic manipulator (IRM). The CAS has in its structure two driving wheels and one free wheel (2 DW/1 FW)-wheeled mobile robot (WMR) equipped with a 7-DOF robotic manipulator (RM). On the end effector of the RM, a mobile visual servoing system (eye-in-hand VSS) is mounted. The multifunctionality is provided by the three actions, assembly, disassembly, and repair, while the flexibility is due to the assembly of different products. After disassembly or repair, CAS picks up the disassembled components and transports them to the appropriate storage depots for reuse. Technology operates synchronousl... [more]

This paper is divided into seven main parts. Its purpose is to review the literature to demonstrate the importance of developing bioengineering and global production of biomaterials to care for the level of healthcare in the world. First, the general description of health as a universal human value and assumptions of a long and healthy life policy is presented. The ethical aspects of the mission of medical doctors and dentists were emphasized. The coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic has had a significant impact on health issues, determining the world’s health situation. The scope of the diseases is given, and specific methods of their prevention are discussed. The next part focuses on bioengineering issues, mainly medical engineering and dental engineering, and the need for doctors to use technical solutions supporting medicine and dentistry, taking into account the current stage Industry 4.0 of the industrial revolution. The concept of Dentistry 4.0 was generally presented, and a general... [more]

Troubleshooting batch processes at a plant-wide level requires first finding the unit causing the fault, and then understanding why the fault occurs in that unit. Whereas in the literature case studies discussing the latter issue abound, little attention has been given so far to the former, which is complex for several reasons: the processing units are often operated in a non-sequential way, with unusual series-parallel arrangements; holding vessels may be required to compensate for lack of production capacity, and reacting phenomena can occur in these vessels; and the evidence of batch abnormality may be available only from the end unit and at the end of the production cycle. We propose a structured methodology to assist the troubleshooting of plant-wide batch processes in data-rich environments where multivariate statistical techniques can be exploited. Namely, we first analyze the last unit wherein the fault manifests itself, and we then step back across the units through the proces... [more]

The quality of product and process is one of the most important factors in achieving constructively and then functionally safe products in any industry. Over the years, the concept of Industry 4.0 has emerged in all the quality processes, such as nondestructive testing (NDT). The most widely used quality control methods in the industries of mechanical engineering, aerospace, and civil engineering are nondestructive methods, which are based on inspection by detecting indications, without affecting the surface quality of the examined parts. Over time, the focus has been on research with the fourth generation in nondestructive testing, i.e., NDT 4.0 or Smart NDT, as a main topic to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the methods for a safe detection of all types of discontinuities. This area of research aims at the efficiency of methods, the elimination of human errors, digitalization, and optimization from a constructive point of view. In this paper, we presented a magnetic partic... [more]

Nowadays, Busbars have been extensively used in electrical vehicle industry. Therefore, improving the risk assessment for the production could help to screen the associated failure and take necessary actions to minimize the risk. In this research, a fuzzy inference system (FIS) and artificial neural network (ANN) were used to avoid the shortcomings of the classical method by creating new models for risk assessment with higher accuracy. A dataset includes 58 samples are used to create the models. Mamdani fuzzy model and ANN model were developed using MATLAB software. The results showed that the proposed models give a higher level of accuracy compared to the classical method. Furthermore, a fuzzy model reveals that it is more precise and reliable than the ANN and classical models, especially in case of decision making.

Optimising an existing production plant is a challenging task for companies. Necessary physical test runs disturb running production processes. Simulation models are one opportunity to limit these physical test runs. This is particularly important since today’s fast and intelligent networking opportunities in production systems are in line with the call of Industry 4.0 for substantial and frequent changes. Creating simulation models for those systems requires high effort and in-depth knowledge of production processes. In the current literature, digital twins promise several advantages for production optimisation and can be used to simulate production systems, which reduce necessary physical test runs and related costs. While most companies are not able to create digital twins yet, companies using enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have the general capability to create digital shadows. This paper presents a concept and a case study for a generic simulation of production systems... [more]

In order to attain high manufacturing productivity, industry 4.0 merges all the available system and environment data that can empower the enabled-intelligent techniques. The use of data provokes the manufacturing self-awareness, reconfiguring the traditional manufacturing challenges. The current piece of research renders attention to new consideration in the Job Shop Scheduling (JSSP) based problems as a case study. In that field, a great number of previous research papers provided optimization solutions for JSSP, relying on heuristics based algorithms. The current study investigates the main elements of such algorithms to provide a concise anatomy and a review on the previous research papers. Going through the study, a new optimization scope is introduced relying on additional available data of a machine, by which the Flexible Job-Shop Scheduling Problem (FJSP) is converted to a dynamic machine state assignation problem. Deploying two-stages, the study utilizes a combination of discr... [more]

The manufacturing sector is a fast-growing sector demanded by the increasing population. The adoption of information technology is a boon in the manufacturing industry. The industrial transformation from the third generation to the fourth generation has significantly impacted sustainable development. On account of this, different sectors are adopting industry 4.0 technologies to smooth their process flows. The industry 4.0 technologies implementation in the manufacturing sector will not only enhance its productivity, but also lead to sustainable growth. In this regard, this study intended to examine the challenges associated with adopting industry 4.0 technologies in the manufacturing sector. A thorough literature review was carried out from the Scopus database, and a list of ten important challenges was shortlisted for analysis. The article uses interpretive structural modeling to analyse the challenges of industry 4.0 and make a structural model between identified challenges. “Lack o... [more]