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Topic · Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Digital Transformation in Industry

Digital Transformation in Industry is a research topic within Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Science Explorer counts 35k research works in it since 1957. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the digital transformation of manufacturing systems, with an emphasis on Industry 4.0 technologies such as Digital Twin, Smart Manufacturing, Cyber-Physical Systems, Big Data, and Internet of Things. It explores the integration of these technologies to improve sustainability, lean production, supply chain management, and the development of maturity models for assessing readiness and maturity in manufacturing enterprises.

  • Digital Twin
  • Smart Manufacturing
  • Cyber-Physical Systems
  • Big Data
  • Sustainability
  • Internet of Things
  • Cloud Manufacturing
  • Lean Production
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Maturity Models
Research works
35k
fractional, since 1957
In the world top 10%
3.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+134%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
27% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Digital Transformation in Industry

Which countries lead Digital Transformation in Industry research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (3.5k and 2.2k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 3.5k works
  2. 2 India 2.2k works
  3. 3 United States 1.9k works
  4. 4 Germany 1.5k works
  5. 5 Italy 850 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 786 works
  7. 7 Indonesia 723 works
  8. 8 Brazil 605 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 499 works
  10. 10 France 484 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 26.9%India: 17.1%United States: 14.7%Germany: 11.1%6 others listed: 30.1%27%largest
China3,526 · 26.9%India2,246 · 17.1%United States1,925 · 14.7%Germany1,453 · 11.1%6 others listed3,947 · 30.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Digital Transformation in Industry research?

By volume in 2022-now, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft publishes the most Digital Transformation in Industry research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and RWTH Aachen University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Fraunhofer-GesellschaftGermany 155 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 100 works
  3. 3 RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany 96 works
  4. 4 Politecnico di MilanoItaly 90 works
  5. 5 University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 84 works
  6. 6 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 66 works
  7. 7 Symbiosis International UniversityIndia 66 works
  8. 8 Binus UniversityIndonesia 61 works
  9. 9 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 60 works
  10. 10 Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 59 works

Who are the leading researchers in Digital Transformation in Industry?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Digital Transformation in Industry include Christian M. Ringle, Frede Blaabjerg and Seeram Ramakrishna.

  1. 1 Christian M. Ringle Germany 215k citations
  2. 2 Frede Blaabjerg Denmark 203k citations
  3. 3 Seeram Ramakrishna Singapore 186k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Digital Transformation in Industry?

The most cited paper in Digital Transformation in Industry is "Understanding digital transformation: A review and a research agenda" (Grégory Vial, 2019), with 6,975 citations. Next come "Digital transformation: A multidisciplinary reflection and research agenda" (5,424) and "A Cyber-Physical Systems architecture for Industry 4.0-based manufacturing systems" (5,033).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Understanding digital transformation: A review and a research agenda Grégory Vial · The Journal of Strategic Information Systems Open access 10 Feb 2019 6,975
2 Digital transformation: A multidisciplinary reflection and research agenda Peter C. Verhoef, Thijs Broekhuizen, Yakov Bart et al. · Journal of Business Research Open access 3 Nov 2019 5,424
3 A Cyber-Physical Systems architecture for Industry 4.0-based manufacturing systems Jay K. Lee, Behrad Bagheri, Hung-An Kao · Manufacturing Letters 10 Dec 2014 5,033
4 Artificial Intelligence (AI): Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy Yogesh Kumar Dwivedi et al. · International Journal of Information Management Open access 27 Aug 2019 4,479
5 Digital Twin in Industry: State-of-the-Art Fei Tao, He Zhang, Ang Liu et al. · IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics Apr 2019 4,318
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Digital Transformation in Industry research done?

The largest centres of Digital Transformation in Industry research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Chennai (India) and Xi'an (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Västerås.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 588 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 279 works
  3. 3 ChennaiIndia 192 works
  4. 4 Xi'anChina 184 works
  5. 5 WuhanChina 178 works
  6. 6 GuangzhouChina 166 works
  7. 7 MoscowRussia 163 works
  8. 8 NanjingChina 162 works
  9. 9 LondonUnited Kingdom 160 works
  10. 10 JakartaIndonesia 159 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. VästeråsSE · 20.5 works20×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Digital Transformation in Industry than the world average.

See Digital Transformation in Industry on the map

Where is the best place to study Digital Transformation in Industry?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Politecnico di Milano and Nanyang Technological University score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 21.34%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Khalifa University o…Nanyang Technologica…Hong Kong Polytechni…Politecnico di Milano
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 76.724.4%3.6×59 +249.8%
2Politecnico di MilanoItaly 67.913.2%6.6×90 +88.4%
3Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 66.626.5%1.7×25 +94.9%
4Khalifa University of Science and TechnologyUnited Arab Emirates 66.429.5%3.9×18 +564.1%
5University of PatrasGreece 66.319.8%9.4×48 +26.0%
6KTH Royal Institute of TechnologySweden 64.824.5%4.6×33 +40.4%
7Wageningen University & ResearchNetherlands 63.526.8%1.8×12 +95.7%
8Beihang UniversityChina 63.218.4%2.7×55 +38.9%
9University of Hong KongChina 62.821.2%1.5×26 +79.5%
10University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 62.79.1%7.2×84 +186.8%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Digital Transformation in Industry, country by country

Is Digital Transformation in Industry research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 134% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Digital Transformation in Industry.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Digital Transformation in Industry as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.094% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Digital Transformation in Industry0.11% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Digital Transformation in Industry over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Digital Transformation in Industry10.0% in 202520102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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