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Distributed Application Integration in Industry

Distributed Application Integration in Industry

Employing microservices for enterprise application integration (EAI)

Jan-Peer Rudolph

In line with current digital transformations, the number of software applications in use by companies is continuously increasing. This particularly affects industrial enterprises, which face challenges due to their often complex business processes. A holistic and sustainable integration of these business processes requires a strong link between the different information systems used. In this context, application integration, also known as enterprise application integration (EAI), is becoming more important. Modern approaches such as the use of microservices offer a particularly flexible and efficient solution for seamlessly connecting different applications and thus promoting the agility and scalability of a company’s IT landscape.

Industry 4.0 Science | Volume 41 | 2025 | Edition 1 | Pages 74-80

Computer Use in Industrial Business Processes

Computer Use in Industrial Business Processes

A systematic literature review of the last 40 years

The most important value-adding industrial business processes are product creation and order processing. For 40 years now, Industry 4.0 Science and its predecessor titles have supported the development and implementation of the software used in these industrial business processes. In honor of the journal’s 40th anniversary, a systematic literature review is carried out to identify trends that played a role in the past but no longer do today. The research provides some surprising insights into the topics that have been important in the last 40 years – as well as those that will remain relevant in the future.

Industry 4.0 Science | Volume 41 | 2025 | Edition 1 | Pages 8-14 | DOI 10.30844/I4SE.25.1.8

Assembly in Transition

Assembly in Transition

Empirical results of digitalization

, Herwig Winkler

Assembly is an important part of industrial production and is also characterized by a high proportion of manual work. Manufacturing companies have an intrinsic interest in increasing personnel productivity and preventing unit labor costs from rising. Many thus hope to gain economic benefits by implementing digitalization projects. The potential of digitalization in assembly must be exploited to achieve these goals.

Industry 4.0 Science | Volume 41 | 2025 | Edition 1 | Pages 42-49

The Advantages of Microservices

The Advantages of Microservices

An examination of current literature on its application in companies

The intensive use of the term microservice calls for a theoretical analysis of the technology. Since service-oriented architecture approaches have produced rather disappointing results, the focus should be on the advantages of microservices. This article questions which principles justify the use of microservices as a system architecture. So far, some of the advantages mentioned in the examined literature have not been further explained or defined. There is also a lack of key figures for measuring success.

Industry 4.0 Science | Volume 41 | 2025 | Edition 1 | Pages 50-59

Cloud-Agnostic Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

Cloud-Agnostic Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

An approach to prevent vendor lock-in

Modern cloud architectures benefit, among other things, from improved availability due to different cloud locations and greater flexible scalability due to the theoretically unlimited computing power of the cloud. However, in addition to challenges regarding data protection and data security, companies are increasingly concerned about the growing dependency on their cloud provider. In this article, we present a prototype implementation for switching between cloud services from different providers at the PaaS level.

Industry 4.0 Science | Volume 41 | 2025 | Edition 1 | Pages 68-73

Circular Economy Enabled by Digitization

Circular Economy Enabled by Digitization

Digital networking in the procurement of manufacturing companies

, Peter Wurster

, David Pfister

Current developments in digitalization and data economy, especially multilateral data sharing platforms, offer the potential to accelerate the implementation of circular economy practices in the manufacturing industry. This article systematically examines the extent to which digitalization could serve as a catalyst for circular economy in the procurement of such companies. As a basis for the following research, eight experts from five leading global manufacturers and suppliers in the automotive and aviation industries were interviewed. This article demonstrates practical hypotheses for the sustainable design of supply chains and proposes two specific use cases for circular economy practices that can proactively counteract the use of resources.

Industry 4.0 Science | Volume 41 | 2025 | Edition 1 | Pages 26-33 | DOI 10.30844/I4SE.25.1.26

Circular Economy as a Holistic Strategy

Circular Economy as a Holistic Strategy

Complexity management and sustainability

Joseph W. Dörmann

Over the past decades, circular economy has established itself as an important strategy for tackling sustainability challenges. Its holistic approach aims to use resources efficiently and minimize waste. This article aims to identify and evaluate the numerous challenges connected to the successful implementation and expansion of the circular economy approach. Economic, technological, social and political aspects are examined to provide a comprehensive insight into the complexity of the strategy and its implementation. The article concludes that a successful circular economy can only be achieved through the coordinated cooperation of different stakeholders and the development of innovative solutions to the identified challenges.

Industry 4.0 Science | Volume 41 | Edition 1 | Pages 60-67

Hybrid Decision Support in Product Creation

Hybrid Decision Support in Product Creation

Improving performance with data science and artificial intelligence

, Jens Pottebaum

, Klaus-Dieter Thoben

, Petra Wiederkehr

Technical systems are characterized by increasing interdisciplinarity, complexity and networking. A product and its corresponding production systems require interdisciplinary multi-objective optimization. Sustainability and recyclability demands increase said complexity. The efficiency of previously established engineering methods is reaching its limits, which can only be overcome by systematic integration of extreme data. The aim of "hybrid decision support" is as follows: Data science and artificial intelligence should be used to supplement human capabilities in conjunction with existing heuristics, methods, modeling and simulation to increase the efficiency of product creation.

Industry 4.0 Science | Volume 41 | Edition 1 | Pages 18-25 | DOI 10.30844/I4SE.25.1.18

Intelligent Shopfloor Assistants

Intelligent Shopfloor Assistants

Increasing productivity through the use of generative AI

, Christopher Mühlich

In modern production companies, a heterogeneous IT landscape often complicates day-to-day work. A promising antidote is the use of intelligent agents, which use generative AI for routine tasks and can therefore increase efficiency. Whether these intelligent systems can be successfully integrated into existing networks determines whether the flow of information can be improved and manual effort reduced.

Industry 4.0 Science | Volume 40 | 2024 | Edition 6 | Pages 64-71

Real-time Reactions for Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV)

Real-time Reactions for Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV)

Monitoring and controlling with long latencies

Dominik Augenstein, Lea Basler

The constant advance of digitalization confronts companies with new challenges and opportunities. Immediate data processing is now ubiquitous and the advantages are obvious. However, broadband coverage in Germany is insufficient, which makes it difficult to improve processes. Mathematical approaches and machine learning enable timely optimization and smooth production.

Industry 4.0 Science | Volume 40 | 2024 | Edition 6 | Pages 56-62

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