Resources in Smart Factory in Industry 4.0 Conditions

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to invite you to propose a paper for a Special Issue about Resources in Smart Factory in Industry 4.0 conditions.

The term Smart Factory describes a highly digitalized environment in which machinery and material resources are able to improve the internal processes through automation and self-optimization. The conception is especially used in Industry 4.0 conditions in industrial enterprises. There are many benefits of Smart Factory such as: better material planning, improvement of supply chain logistics, and better product development.

Industry 4.0, i.e., basing industrial processes on advanced data processing systems, automation, the Internet of Things, intelligent technologies, and Smart Factory, is a concept that is increasingly often referred to in the context of specific business needs, and is now an increasingly used concept. The 4IR technologies introduced in companies, with the assumption of sustainability, maintain the trend towards increasing efficiency and resource utilization. Thanks to the technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), it has become possible to better manage resources (raw materials, energy, water, etc.) at the entrance to the production process and during its execution, through more precise production planning and flexible management of the entire product life cycle.

The category of material reduction of resources used in companies is an important element of the strategy of implementing sustainable development, and their reuse is a part of the circular economy. In this issue, we can consider, e.g., intelligent materials adapting to different conditions by changing properties such as dynamics, size, shape, behaviour under the influence of heat and other new conceptions used in Smart Factories in today’s Industry 4.0 production systems.

The main value of Smart Factory is connected with combination of production, material resources, and communication technology across the entire manufacturing supply chain. We especially think that the implementation of Smart Factory can be useful in improving sustainable resource management within an organization.

We are especially interested in topics related to:

• The functioning of Smart Factory;
• The use of natural resources in Smart Factory;
• The impact of Industry 4.0 on energy and water consumption;
• Smart materials;
• Sustainable resource management in Smart Factory;
• The logistic of material resources in Industry 4.0 condition;
• The digitalization of material management processes;
• The quality of materials in Industry 4.0;
• The relations between circular economy and Industry 4.0.

Qualitative and quantitative empirical research studies are also desired for this Special Issue. We would like to welcome good papers about functioning Smart Factory in Industry 4.0 conditions.

Prof. Dr. Radosław Wolniak
Dr. Bożena Gajdzik
Guest Editors

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• Industry 4.0
• nature resources
• material resources
• management