Review on Smart Factory Operations: A Bibliometric Analysis

Over the last few years, existing and emerging Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and artificial intelligence have been changing the way that factories conduct their manufacturing activities. Operation system of smart factories has been of great interest to researchers in recent years. However, the research concerning operations for the smart factory is still at the nascent stage. To address this need, we conduct a citation and co-citation analysis on smart factory operation system research published in the 11-year period from 2010-2020. A total of 351 papers were selected from Web of Science database. In the citation analysis, we depend on the degree centrality and betweenness centrality to identify 36 important papers. In addition, our main path analysis reveals the role of ICT in facilitating fast development of operation in smart factory. In the co-citation analysis, we identify four major research themes: resource reconfiguration, predictive production planning model, collaborative scheduling mechanism and technology basis of logistics. This is among the first studies to examine the knowledge structure of smart factory operations research by using evidence-based analysis methods. Recommendations for the future research directions have suggested based on our analysis.