Due to volatile and fast moving markets, increasing competition or more complex product solutions, industrial companies are facing increasingly intricate challenges. High energy consumption, emissions output, resource scarcity... [ view full abstract ]
Due to volatile and fast moving markets, increasing competition or more complex product solutions, industrial companies are facing increasingly intricate challenges. High energy consumption, emissions output, resource scarcity and waste are just some of the issues enterprises have to manage. Industry 4.0 (I4.0) focuses on an intelligent and interconnected world in which smart factories represent the connection between digital and physical production networks. This interconnection can lead to a variety of environmental benefits, such as consuming fewer resources by means of intelligent connectivity of objects. The energy consumption of a company can be reduced by using start-stop technologies or big data transparency concerning resource and energy consumption to reach optimization potential in production. While I4.0 is increasingly discussed in theory and practice, the impact on the environment has only been investigated rudimentary. We try to close this gap, therefore, the main objective of this contribution is to analyze environmental potentials that can result from the implementation of I4.0. To fulfil this objective, I4.0 in general and its main components are explained at the beginning. Afterwards, the environmental impacts of I4.0 are investigated with a special focus on the areas resource and energy efficiency as well as recycling potential. This first analysis showed that in each of the three areas different environmental potentials which can be influenced by I4.0 are discussed in literature. To validate the practical application of the theoretical findings an empirical study was conducted in the form of expert interviews. Based on the previous results an interview guide was derived which was discussed with experts from different industries. Afterwards, the interviews were evaluated using the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring. In the course of the empirical study, the results of the literature research were largely confirmed. However, further potentials, which were not discussed in the literature, were mentioned by the experts. In summary, the results of the analysis are showing that there are many potentials through the implementation of I4.0 to counteract environmental impacts and, therefore, maintain the competitiveness of company. Finally, however, it should be noted critically that many companies have not yet implemented I4.0 sufficiently in order to raise these potentials. Accordingly, there is still need for further research at this point.
Keywords: Environmental potential; Industrie 4.0; energy; resources; recycling
5c. Circular economy, zero waste & innovation
