Industry 4.0 technologies impacts in the manufacturing and supply chain landscape: an overview

Nowadays, we are in the middle of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0. A set of technologies applied to the manufacturing landscape gives birth to a new concept of factory in which every product, device, machine and process is interconnected to the others, composing Cyber-Physical Systems able to communicate with each other, resulting in a very high degree of automation. The aim of this paper is to present the technological advances, which are at the basis of Industry 4.0 in order to assess the impacts of implementing such technologies in manufacturing, transforming traditional factories into smart factories. An overview focusing on the technologies applied at different stages of the supply chain is presented. Finally, the paper discusses theoretical and practical implications of introducing Industry 4.0 in industrial scenarios.