Industry4.0 Lab

The Industry4.0 Lab of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering of the Politecnico di Milano consists of a fully automated and digitised assembly production line. The high flexibility of the system and the modularity of its configuration make it possible to test and replicate virtually any type of discrete manufacturing assembly system. In addition, the system can be reconfigured very quickly using dedicated modelling and simulation tools. These features allow the line to be used for both research activities and as a teaching factory. The I4.0 Lab is dedicated to the memory of Marco Garetti, whose commitment and vision laid the foundations for the research activities of the Manufacturing Group.

Thanks to its hardware and software architectures, which fully replicate a real factory ready for digital transformation in the context of Industry 4.0, the I4.0Lab can investigate different research areas:

  • Advanced Manufacturing Systems;
  • Manufacturing Operations;
  • Maintenance Management;
  • Sustainable Manufacturing;
  • Simulation;
  • Big Data Analytics;
  • IoT and Cyber-Physical Systems;
  • Manufacturing and Logistics;

The I4.0Lab has been designed around four main objectives:

  • Education and Training;
  • Design and prototyping;
  • Dissemination of knowledge and consultancy


The I4.0Lab implements a multidisciplinary vision of the manufacturing environment, with the aim of creating a training and research laboratory for the advanced manufacturing sector, thanks also to the involvement of other departments of the Politecnico di Milano and other international universities and research centres.

The Industry 4.0 Lab is involved in several research projects aimed at putting new business models into practice and developing the tools needed to build and evaluate intelligent business processes.