Augmented RealityAugmented reality adds digital (esp. visual, sound) elements to the real physicalworld. These systems are currently in their infancy, but in the future, companies willuse augmented reality more extensively to give workers information in real time toimprove the process of decision-making and work (e.g., using augmented realityglasses).
20Table 3. Brief description of the advantages of Industry 4.0 Technologies (based on Sony, 2021)StrategiccompetitiveadvantageIn a competitive sense, smart products will create product differentiation, customersegmentation, dynamic price setting, value-added services, and closer customer relationships(Porter & Heppelmann, 2014).Organizationalefficiency &effectivenessVertical integration will reduce losses in resources and thereby improve organizational efficiency.Horizontal integration will result into efficient handling of supply chains, improving theorganizational output (Rajnai & Kocsis, 2018).Organization agilityOrganization agility is the competence by which an organization deals with uncertainty in themarketplace and by using rapid response to transform this competence into innovative productsand services (Carvalho et al.,2017). The two important facets are quickness and the quality of theresponse. Organization agility determines the performance of the organization over time.Improved productsafety & qualityThe use of product safety data such as product recall data, common incident problems, solutions,improved quality management systems, self- regulating and automatic monitoring of predefinedquality characteristics through the implementation of vertical, horizontal and end-to-endintegration in Industry 4.0 will reduce the safety and quality issues (Li & Lau, 2017).ImprovedoperationsIndustry 4.0 stresses on process optimization even before value creation is realised in practice.The simulation of production activities and supply chain could be one of the reasons for thisoptimization. The vertical and horizontal integration will result in shorter time to market and aconsiderable reduction in lead times (Rudtsch et al., 2014). The last-minute changes or volatility inthe market can be handled in a better manner. The improved coordination in the supply chaindue to real-time data will result in the reduction of inventory across all elements in the supplychain.Social benefitsConcerning the social benefits, the physically demanding work or ergonomically awkwardpositions which are difficult for humans will be performed by robots. The smart, autonomous andself-regulating production process will take over the monotonous jobs in the production processthereby improving the quality of work-life for humans (Kagermann, 2015).EnvironmentalbenefitsIndustry 4.0 implementation will reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, because, due tovertical integration, data regarding traceable carbon footprints or emission data will be strictlymonitored by an algorithm which will control the various parameters (Peukert et al., 2015). The
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