Cyber-Physical Waste Identification and Elimination Strategies in the Digital Lean Manufacturing World

Lean Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 are at times portrait as conflicting paradigms. However, we take the stance that they are two sides of the same coin, and should be considered as mutually beneficial. Based on this understanding, this paper is part of a series where we discuss established Lean practices in the emerging Digital Lean Manufacturing World. In this paper, we specifically focus on the issue of “buffer waste”, and what that implies within a cyber-physical production system. We discuss the vicious cycle of Mura, Muri, and Muda, and provide observed examples in industry for “buffer waste” from four different, yet interdependent perspectives: (i) physical to physical, (ii) physical to digital, (iii) digital to physical, and (iv) digital to digital. The results of this study confirm that “buffer waste” is indeed an issue that deserves our attention as academics and practitioners in the emerging Digital Lean Manufacturing environment.