- Title
- Impact of artificial intelligence and digitalisation on lean manufacturing and its drive for industrial revolution and smart factories
- Creator
- Ninan, Abel
- Subject
- Artificial intelligence
- Subject
- Lean manufacturing -- South Africa
- Subject
- Manufacturing industries -- South Africa -- Automation
- Date Issued
- 2024-12
- Date
- 2024-12
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/70001
- Identifier
- vital:78272
- Description
- Digitalisation with the development and rising of Artificial Intelligence has hugely transformed the Lean Manufacturing environment and enhanced the transition to Industry 4.0 and Smart factories. Organisations in South Africa are faced with a large variety of issues as they make the shift to Industry 4.0 and Smart Factories, with some problems being based on political will and expertise. This research looks at how developments in Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence can be integrated and relate with Lean Manufacturing methodologies, which can enhance productivity but at the same time reduce waste, while fostering continuous improvement. The focus is on Lean Manufacturing processes, which can be optimised and enhanced through data analytics, and predictive technologies, through the combination of Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies in the digital space. The future industrial revolution could be enhanced by development in these areas, which can create and revolutionise production to become more efficient, flexible, and reactive. The research is based on a qualitative approach and involved the analysis of current literature as well as in depth interviews of 15 participants who were chosen based on their work experience and industry, they fall in. This research aims to identify current and possible future relationships between Lean Manufacturing, Digitalisation, Industry 4.0 and SMART factories. The research further attempts to understand how Digitalisation and AI together with emerging technologies can improve and enhance Lean capabilities, operational efficiencies, and contribute to the development and rise of Smart factories. Organisations in South Africa are faced with a large variety of issues as they make the shift to Industry 4.0 and Smart Factories, with some problems being based on political will and expertise. Lean Manufacturing has many benefits in solving these problems because of its emphasis on both process optimisation and waste reduction. Lean Manufacturing improves manufacturing productivity, promotes morale, lowers costs, increases profitability, and optimises space and inventory management by getting rid of non-value-adding operations. These various advantages are further enhanced by the incorporation of digitalisation, which turns manual operations into digital ones and improves data accessibility, cuts waste, and enables real-time monitoring. Large amounts of data are easier to monitor and analyse using digital technologies than they are with old manual approaches. Digitalisation and Lean Manufacturing concepts work together to optimize processes and provide artificial intelligence the ability to use processed data for predictive analytics and self-making. AI helps to create autonomous, self-sufficient Smart Factories by enabling the discovery and removal of non-value-adding operations via its rapid analysis of historical and real-time data. The combination of Industry 4.0, Digitalization, AI, and Lean Manufacturing creates a cooperative and collaborative environment where technology boosts productivity and competitiveness in the manufacturing sector.
- Description
- Thesis (MBA) -- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, Business School, 2024
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (121 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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- Visitors: 29
- Downloads: 14
Collections
NMU Business School
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | NINAN, A.pdf | 996 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |