Industry 4.0 and Quality Control: IoT and AI in Smart Manufacturing
Keywords:
Industry 4.0; Internet of Things; Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Quality Control; Smart Manufacturing; Systematic Review.Abstract
The Fourth Industrial Revolution has reshaped productive paradigms by incorporating advanced digital technologies into manufacturing processes. Among these, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) emerge as cross-cutting enablers with the capacity to transform quality control management from a reactive approach toward a predictive and autonomous one. This paper presents a systematic literature review of scientific publications indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, and IEEE Xplore between 2018 and 2024, aimed at identifying, synthesizing, and critically evaluating the contributions of IoT and AI to quality control in smart manufacturing environments. Findings reveal that the integration of smart sensors, industrial communication networks, and machine learning algorithms enables defect rate reductions ranging from 25% to 45%, operational efficiency improvements exceeding 30%, and predictive maintenance systems achieving accuracy rates above 90%. However, significant structural barriers persist—particularly in emerging economies such as Ecuador—related to the technological infrastructure gap, implementation costs, and shortage of specialized talent. The study concludes that the strategic adoption of these technologies, supported by human capital development policies and enabling regulatory frameworks, constitutes a critical vector for sustainable industrial competitiveness.
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