Towards Identification of the Hierarchical Link between Industry 4.0, Smart Manufacturing and Smart Factory: Concept Cross-Comparison and Synthesis

The industrial sector has historically been linked to the prosperity, development and evolution of nations, hence to the genesis of the philosophy of competitiveness, mainly at the manufacturing level. An environment is in perpetual adaptation to trends, and the best example is the change of industrial ideology, as was the case in the past. The global society is facing the same challenges. Customer demands are becoming more and more specific and personalized, which means that factories have to innovate in terms of production and management of mudas in an eco-environmental context closely followed by several global organizations. Information and communication technologies have become the joker to master in order to stay in a market that is global and very competitive. At the heart of this evolution is the emergence of the Industry 4.0 concept, which includes a key element that is intelligent production in factories of the future that can meet different obstacles. The purpose of the current research on one hand is to highlight the relation between I4.0, smart manufacturing and smart factory, and on the other hand to present a synthesis of Industry 4.0 national initiatives linked to the fourth industrial revolution worldwide.