Lean Six Sigma in smart factories based on Industry 4.0

The purpose of this article is to present the preliminary results from ongoing research on Lean Six Sigma in Industry 4.0 based on a novel and comprehensive approach. It shows that Lean Six Sigma and Industry 4.0 mutually support each other. To develop a deeper and more dynamic mutual support, updates on Lean Six Sigma based on 3 critical principles are suggested. It provides a number of sound perspectives on improvement to the Lean Six Sigma methodology to develop an intelligent, sophisticated, integrated and efficient approach for continuous improvement within smart factories. The findings assist in tackling chronic problems and new challenges in Manufacturing such as Energy Management. The suggested principles leverage Industry 4.0 capabilities for humans in the world of robots.