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The purpose of this paper is to identify actions and guidelines for enabling and fostering the Industry 4.0 adoption, as well as to understand the role of three ecosystem actors in these actions (i.e. companies, educational organizations and regional policy makers).

52 semi-structured expert interviews in the Tyrol-Veneto cross-border macro-region were carried out and interpreted using the innovation ecosystem concept. In particular, drawing from this latter, six ecosystem building blocks were identified and used to analyze the interviews' content.

The findings allow not only to build a comprehensive framework for action to support Industry 4.0 adoption, but also to confirm the importance of exploring Industry 4.0 through the lens of the ecosystem concept. Indeed, the authors show that R&D activities should be complemented with interorganizational actions, such as training and networking, and that all ecosystem actors should be involved in the Industry 4.0 adoption.

This is among the few studies that adopt the innovation ecosystem perspective to explore best practices for Industry 4.0 adoption, thus overcoming the weakness of existing papers based on a firm-level perspective. It also complements previous ecosystem-based research on Industry 4.0 by exploring the technology adoption side, rather than the technology provision one, and by considering the adoption of a wide set of technologies.

This paper proposes adequate strategies that companies, public administrators and organisations in the education industry can undertake to successfully face the challenges of digital transformation in a regional innovation system. This research considers stakeholders that operate in the Tyrol–Veneto macroregion (the Tyrol, South Tyrol and Veneto areas), a significant case of moderately innovative European macroregion.

This study undertakes explorative research based on a qualitative method. It adopts a place-based multi-stakeholder approach to emphasise the role of three categories of stakeholders (companies, educational system and regional governments) in facing digital changes. More precisely, interviews with 60 stakeholders from the Tyrol–Veneto macroregion were conducted and examined via both text mining analysis and content analysis. First, correspondence factor analysis was performed using IRaMuTeQ software to identify homogeneous subsets of concepts (pillars–i.e., macroareas of strategic actions). Second, two coding phases were implemented using NVivo software to detect strategic fields of action and specific strategic actions undertaken to address the challenges of digital transformation.

The results highlight that digital transformation is a pervasive challenge of regional innovative system that requires a multifaceted set of strategic actions falling into three main pillars. The first pillar, named “culture and skills”, includes three strategic fields of action as follows: digital education, talents and digital culture. The second pillar, named “infrastructures and technologies”, points out the need of information, interaction and artificial intelligence as key strategic fields of action. The third pillar, named “ecosystems”, highlights the importance of investing in medium- to long-term visions, partnerships and life quality. In brief, this study shows that standalone interventions are insufficient to tackle digital transformation from a systemic perspective. Moreover, this study outlines the potential contribution of each category of stakeholder to foster the digitalisation of the Tyrol–Veneto macroregion.

This study highlights the importance of developing digital culture and skills before investing in digital infrastructure and technology in a moderately innovative macroregion. Companies should alter their vision before reconfiguring their business models, invest in smart working and establish contacts with start-ups. In addition, this study recommends that public administration should mainly invest in digital education and partnerships, while, in terms of education and training organisations, it suggests providing digital skills to several cohorts of both students and workers. Policy implications call for the creation of new occasions of cooperation among stakeholders by fostering “table talks” as strategic and policy actions and by making more financial resources available to encourage the digital transformation processes.

The results of this study may be adapted to the characteristics of other regional innovative systems and used as a reference point in terms of the improvement of business, market and local development.

This study comprehensively reviews the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which refers to Industry 4.0 (IR 4.0) applications in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Multinational companies and big corporations have the capacity and resources to implement IR 4.0, but SMEs are limited due to financial constraints, expertise and lack of resources. Even so, IR 4.0 is required as technologies evolve and market demand has changed how firms do business.

To uncover the potential of IR 4.0 and critical determinants of SMEs’ adoption of IR 4.0, this study presents a bibliometric analysis to evaluate the current research streams in IR 4.0 adoption among SMEs through bibliographic coupling. Furthermore, this review provides a glimpse of the future by analyzing prospective trends on IR 4.0 in SMEs.

Bibliographic coupling produces five clusters: (1) challenges and barriers in IR 4.0 implementation among SMEs, (2) technological adoption of IR 4.0, (3) opportunities and benefits of IR 4.0, (4) business model innovation and (5) implication of IR 4.0 on SMEs technologies. On the contrary, co-word analysis produces three clusters: (1) technologies in IR 4.0, (2) strategy and management of IR 4.0 among SMEs and (3) IR 4.0 model for SMEs.

Implications are directly related to business owners, policymakers and technology developers meeting the needs of the industry and SMEs, which are the focus of this review.

The findings contribute significantly to the body of knowledge by presenting a state-of-the-art science mapping approach to uncover the knowledge structure and intellectual linkage of IR 4.0 adoption within SMEs.

This study aims to identify the drivers of human resource empowerment in understanding the new concept of Quality 4.0 in the digital era.

First, the literature of quality management evolution in the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) and the position of the required workforce in Quality 4.0 were reviewed and then by using the opinions of experts and managers of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) firms, a set of driver effects on the readiness and ability of human resources was identified in the context of Quality 4.0. After identifying the drivers, cause-and-effect relationships among these drivers were investigated using the Grey DEMATEL technique.

A total of 29 Quality 4.0 drivers of readiness and workforce ability were identified, based on multiple interactions of quality management in different stages of the production cycle. They were divided into new valuation approaches, composite dimensions, team creativity and thorough inspection. “Technical abilities and capability to solve problems” was identified as the most significant driver.

Findings help KIBS firms to take necessary measures and plans. Consequently, they can increase the readiness and ability of human resources based on the changes in managing Quality 4.0. Also, considering the importance of each driver, they will be able to take a step towards total quality improvement.

Despite extensive research on the subject of the fourth Industrial Revolution, research on the human aspects required for managing Quality 4.0 is limited. This study was performed to examine the cause-and-effect relationships between human resource drivers to adapt to the changes in Quality 4.0.

Directly printing molten metal droplets on a build platform to create full dense metal parts is a promising additive manufacturing process. This study aims of to analyse the effects of the thermal conditions on the resulting tensile properties of parts made from aluminium 4047A built in droplet-based metal printing.

A drop-on-demand print head with pneumatic actuation is used to eject droplets on a nickel sheet mounted on the heated build platform. Tensile specimens are machined from cuboid blocks built by successive droplet deposition and tested in a universal testing machine. The ultimate tensile strength, uniform elongation and yield strength are evaluated and presented. Micro-sections are taken from the printed blocks to examine the internal pores and the metal’s microstructure.

With an increase in the interface temperature the uniform elongation increases from 0.5 to 12%, while the yield strength decreases from 130 to 90 MPa. The ultimate tensile strength increases from 130 MPa to a maximum of 190 MPa at an interface temperature of 530º C and slightly falls for higher interface temperatures. Those values are in the same range as conventionally casted parts of the same alloy. The authors’ hypothesis is that the main effect responsible for the mechanical properties is the wetting of solid material by the liquid droplet and not remelting, as has been reported in literature.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that mechanical properties of aluminium 4047A built by a droplet-based additive manufacturing process are published for different interface temperatures. It is also the first time that the main effect on mechanical properties is attributed to wetting instead of remelting.

The purpose of this research was to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to explore supply chain resilience and operations management practices in the construction industry, with a particular focus on the transition from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0. The study addressed a significant gap in the literature regarding the impact of these advanced technologies on the construction sector’s ability to anticipate, respond to and recover from disruptions.

The methodology employed a bibliometric analysis using the Scopus database to identify key trends, influential publications and emerging research areas using keywords such as “supply chain”, “operations management”, “Industry 4.0”, “Industry 5.0” and “construction”. This approach allowed for a quantitative evaluation of existing literature, offering insights into the intellectual structure of the field.

The findings revealed that while Industry 4.0 technologies, such as IoT and AI, have enhanced the construction industry’s supply chain visibility and efficiency, the shift towards the Industry 5.0 paradigm introduces a human-centric approach that further strengthens resilience through collaboration and sustainability.

The study’s practical implications suggest to both industry and academia that embracing Industry 5.0 principles could significantly enhance the construction industry’s resilience, enabling it to withstand disruptions better and maintain project quality, timelines, and budgets in an increasingly complex global environment.

This research examines the shift from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 within construction supply chains, offering a novel perspective on integrating these technologies.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a methodological guidance for the practical use of the axiomatic designed production module template presented in a former publication. The objective is to accelerate the design process and increase the quality of results in the design of lean production systems.

Two case studies based on practical cases were presented to different test teams. A first test cycle helped to improve the user friendliness of the axiomatic designed tree of functional requirements and design parameters. The second test cycle served to prove the practicability of the template, comparing the teams' results with the realized solution.

Based on the teams' feedbacks, ten “easy‐to‐use” steps for the systematic design of lean production systems were developed. The guideline obtains the best results if used in combination with the value stream mapping concept.

Apart from one case study in injection moulding, practical evaluations were focused on applications in the field of manual, hybrid or automated assembly systems, which perhaps limits the applicability of the presented approach in some machining processes.

Several successful implementations demonstrated the validity of the presented method in terms of results, planning time and user friendliness. Even students with nearly no practical experiences in production system design were able to present astonishing results within short timeframes.

This paper fulfils an identified need of a methodological guidance in the design of lean production systems and offers practical help to shorten the design times and improve the quality of the design results.

All spray painting for Komatsu's new earthmoving vehicle production plant at Birtley, Co. Durham, is carried out in a series of spray painting booths supplied by Binks‐Bullows Ltd of Brownhills, Walsall, West Midlands.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a design approach based on the investigation of the sensitivity of assembly systems to volume fluctuations as part of the selection process of alternative design solutions for scalable assembly systems on the basis of a real industrial case study.

A conceptual approach for the (re‐)design of a scalable assembly system is developed on the basis of an industrial case research using axiomatic design (AD) for the top level structuring of the framework incorporating useful methods and insights obtained from a thorough literature review and from previous research work.

The findings of this research are limited due to the focused nature of a case study based research. However, the obtained results encourage assuming its transferability to similar problems.

Significant research has been done in the design of assembly systems for high product variety, but the review of literature in this field still identifies many opportunities for future research. This paper responds to the clearly identified research need of a methodological guidance regarding the design of scalable assembly systems and offers a practically proven help to improve the efficiency of the design process and the quality of the design results.