Lean Thinking has successfully challenged mass production practices, by providing ‘leaner’ processes and supply chains, i.e. with less waste. Industry 4.0 has become an important strategic approach in the technological change of manufacturing and others. It aims to connect the physical and virtual worlds in industrial production. With such automation associated with Industry 4.0, questions arise about the synergy between this approach and the role of Lean in this ongoing industrial revolution. Therefore, a systematic literature review was carried out in order to identify the role of Lean in this scenario. The review was conducted from 2011 to 2019 timeframe and resulted in a total of 33 papers. This review demonstrated this as an emerging research area with most of the studies published in recent years (2017–2019). A deep analysis was undertaken to understand the Lean effect as a trigger for Industry 4.0. Main findings from a 15 out of the 33 papers revealed elements and facts found in sentences of such papers that act as this trigger. Additionally, a words count indicated that management, processes and people were the most cited words by the 15 papers, reinforcing the role of these key players in the companies’ transformation.

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the lean production paradigm as promoter of workers' creativity and thinking potential, and recognize this human potential as a fundamental asset for companies' growth and success, being a major factor to face the disturbing and unpredictable needs of current markets, providing companies with the necessary agility. The authors believe these thinkers are the base for an agile company and learning organization. Design/methodology/approach – The objectives were achieved through a deep literature review, starting with the Toyota production system (TPS) origins. Some industrial lean case studies were also explored to show that the adoption of a lean culture promotes a pro-active attitude and behavior that are so important for companies nowadays. Findings – This paper explores the association between lean production and the promotion of thinkers. For a long period, and even nowadays, it is common to consider the worker as just another production factor that the companies explore to obtain the maximum utilization. This was a result from the distorted knowledge of the Taylor principles and the Ford assembly line model, seeing the worker as a gear in the “big machine”. Lean production was seen, for many years and by many authors, as an extension of this Taylorist/Fordist model but this paper highlights lean production as a work organization model where the worker assumes a position of thinker, continuously looking for improvement and continuously looking for wastes. By reducing wastes, the company will be prepared to accommodate changes and will attain agility. Research limitations/implications – This paper is mainly based on literature review and on some industrial case studies of lean implementations (recent or just a few years ago); a deep research is necessary on the cause-effect relation between lean production adoption and promotion of thinkers. Practical implications – Helping companies to recognize the importance of workers as thinkers will have relevant impacts through the reduction of waste and costs, improving quality and increase productivity and revenue. Also, for workers, this recognition means respect, self-esteem and confidence, and, essentially, more satisfaction with work. Social implications – With lean production and agility, better products will quickly reach society, contributing thus to clients' satisfaction. Also, lean companies' CEO and workers looking for wastes will lead to a reduction of energy consumption, raw materials needs and gas emissions (reducing pollution of air, land and water), producing only what is needed. Being satisfied with their work they will be happier contributing to the raising of the country's happiness. Originality/value – The authors are not aware of similar research. The paper is meant for those who are interested in improving their companies' operations and workers' relationships.

The global industrial landscape has deeply changed over the last few years and the Industry 4.0 concept has emerged, being enabled by successive disruptive innovations and technological development that have transformed manufacturing processes. This concept is being pointed out as the fourth industrial revolution that embraces a set of new technologies that are shaping the future manufacturing vision. However, Lean Production is a widely used manufacturing approach that brings several benefits to organizations. Despite the integration between Industry 4.0 and Lean Production is being researched in the recent years, the impacts that result from the implementation of new technologies in established lean practices is not clear. The purpose of this study that consists in a systematic literature review is assessing how these emerging disruptive technologies can enhance lean practices and analyse their impacts and benefits for organizations that are moving towards this new industrial paradigm.