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Technological innovation, digitalisation and the Industry 4.0 revolution radically changed business management and contributed to the achievement of sustainability goals. While many studies analyse technological innovation, and Industry 4.0 in particular, the technical aspects of its contribution/impact on sustainability remains partially analysed, especially in relation to Industry 4.0 enabling technologies. This study investigates the contribution of Industry 4.0 enabling technologies on sustainability in innovative firms.

The sustainability reports of the 50 most innovative companies based on Boston Consulting Group (BCG)'s 2022 raking is analysed through a content analysis. In the reports, enabling technologies are analysed in relation to their contribution to sustainability.

The results shed light on the application of Industry 4.0 enabling technologies in sustainability practices based on the communication in the firms' sustainability reports. The results indicate that enabling technologies support the three pillars of sustainability in different business processes.

The results have theoretical and managerial implications that broaden the study of enabling technologies and sustainability while also suggesting a future research agenda.

This study aims to address the gap in the literature regarding the contribution of Industry 4.0 enabling technologies to sustainability.

The purposes of this research article are as follows: to explore the understanding of the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) concept among Indian manufacturing industries, to determine the motivating factors for I4.0 implementation, to identify I4.0 enabling technologies which are used by Indian manufacturing industries and assess their sustainability, to explore the impact of above identified enabling technologies on sustainability pillars, to determine how Indian manufacturing industries interpret the concept of I4.0 and to develop a road map for I4.0 implementation and sustainability.

To perform this research work, a dual research methodology was adopted. Questionnaires were sent to 16 Indian manufacturing industries, and expert interviews were conducted with seven experts who have been practicing the I4.0 concept since the last three years in their business. Also, a sustainability measurement tool was developed to measure the sustainability of the used I4.0 enabling technologies.

In this research article, it is found that smart sensors and robot arms have high sustainability, whereas cyber physical systems (CPSs) and big data analytics have low sustainability. During an expert interview, it has been found that adoption of the I4.0 concept in Indian manufacturing industries is creating job loss fear in employees. Also, it is found that Indian workers must be trained to adopt and sustain I4.0 enabling technologies.

The sustainability of I4.0 enabling technologies in Indian manufacturing industries was indicated by analyzing responses received through questionnaires and expert interviews. There are other measures of sustainability which are beyond this study. Further studies are expected to fill the gap.

The authors have explored reasons for low sustainability of I4.0 enabling technologies in Indian manufacturing industries, suggested a road map for its implementation and sustainability and identified the relationship between different parameters (such as job loss, job creation, workers’ qualification and business profit) and I4.0 sustainability, therefore helping Indian organizations to develop sustainable manufacturing systems based on the I4.0 concept.

This research article gives an idea about sustainability of I4.0 enabling technologies in Indian manufacturing industries.

This paper explores the relationships between Industry 4.0-driven technologies and the circular economy-driven business model (CEDBM) components of value creation, delivery and capture along manufacturing processes.

Based on the literature, a research model is developed in which the three CEBDM components are represented by five components: product service system (PSS), product design, industrial symbiosis (IS), consumer interaction and pay-per-use/rental. For each of these five components, enabling Industry 4.0 technologies are identified and vague interdependence relationships were assessed using a fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method.

This paper contributes to the literature by exploring the relationships of the CEDBM components of value creation, value delivery and value capture with Industry 4.0-driven technological enablers. In addition, causal relationships between Industry 4.0 technologies and their relevance for facilitating CE-enabled manufacturing processes are identified, and finally, Industry 4.0-driven technological enablers of CE are categorized as base and front-end technologies.

The findings suggest that value delivery-based differentiation provides new avenues for value creation and innovative forms of value capture in CEDBMs.

Practitioners can use the findings to develop a roadmap for Industry 4.0-driven technological solutions for CE.

CE-driven processes of manufacturing provide not only opportunities for value capture, creation and delivery but also avenues for customer-centric product and service development and effective resource utilization.

This paper is the first to identify value creation, delivery and capture processes along with Industry 4.0-enabled manufacturing processes.

The purpose of this paper is to identify current technologies related to Industry 4.0 and to develop a rationale to enhance the understanding of their functions within a data-driven paradigm.

A systematic literature review of 119 papers published in journals included in the Journal Citation Report (JCR) was conducted to identify Industry 4.0 technologies. A descriptive analysis characterizes the corpus, and a content analysis identifies the technologies.

The content analysis identified 111 technologies. These technologies perform four functions related to data: data generation and capture, data transmission, data conditioning, storage and processing and data application. The first three groups consist of enabling technologies and the fourth group of value-creating technologies. Results show that Industry 4.0 publications focus on enabling technologies that transmit and process data. Value-creating technologies, which apply data in order to develop new solutions, are still rare in the literature.

The proposed framework serves as a structure for analysing the focus of publications over time, and enables the classification of new technologies as the paradigm evolves.

Because the technical side of the new production paradigm is complex and represents an evolving field, managers benefit from a simplified and data-driven approach. The proposed framework suggests that Industry 4.0 should be approached by looking at how data can create value and at what role each technology plays in this task.

The study makes a direct link between Industry 4.0 technologies and the key resource of this revolution, i.e. data. It provides a rationale that not only establishes relationships between technologies and data, but also highlights their roles as enablers or creators of value. Beyond showing the current focus of Industry 4.0 publications, this paper proposes a framework that is useful for tracking the evolution of the paradigm.

This paper focuses on understanding the contribution of Industry 4.0 technologies to manufacturing flexibility.

A multiple-case study was conducted through interviews and complementary data from 12 adopters of Industry 4.0 technologies from the industrial sector. To enable a broad perspective, cases from 5 industry sectors with different technological intensity levels were studied.

The findings show that Industry 4.0 technologies are mostly used to improve machine flexibility since there is a major focus on technological approaches rather than on wider flexibility. The results also showed that cloud services, IoT, and data analytics provide the basis for flexible operation, and collaborative robots, ERP/MES/PLM, AGVs, and traceability devices are the most commonly implemented technologies for flexibility. However, inherent contingency factors such as production complexity and product life cycle need to be considered.

This article expands the research on manufacturing flexibility, considering new capabilities introduced by Industry 4.0.

The purpose of this paper is to present a practical data-based framework for the prioritization of investment in manufacturing technologies, methods and tools, and to demonstrate its applicability and practical relevance through two case studies of manufacturing firms of different industrial segments.

The proposed framework is based on network theory applied on technology adoption. For this, the database of Industry 4.0 maturity assessments of SENAI was used to develop data visualization tools named “Technology Networks”. Thus, this study is descriptive research with correlational design. Besides, the framework was applied in two companies and semi-structured interviews were carried out with domain experts.

The technology networks highlight the technological adoption patterns of six industrial segments, by considering the answers of 863 Brazilian companies. In general, less sophisticated technologies were positioned in the center of the networks, which facilitates the visualization of adoption paths. Moreover, the networks presented a well-balanced adoption scenario of Industry 4.0 related technologies and lean manufacturing methods and tools.

Since the database was not built under an experimental design, it is not expected to make statistical inferences about the variables. Furthermore, the decision to use an available database prevented the editing or inclusion of technologies. Besides, it is estimated that the technology networks given have few years for obsolescence due to the fast pace of technological development.

The framework is a tool that may be used by practicing manufacturing managers and entrepreneurs for taking assertive decisions regarding the adoption of manufacturing technologies, methods and tools. The proposition of using network theory to support decision making on this topic may lead to further studies, developments and adaptations of the framework.

This paper addresses the topics of lean manufacturing and Industry 4.0 in an unprecedented way, by quantifying the adoption of its technologies, methods and tools and presenting it in network visualizations. The main value of this paper is the comprehensive framework that applies the technology networks for supporting decision making regarding technology adoption.

Lean and agile are essential supply chain management (SCM) strategies that enhance companies' performance. Previous studies have reported the capabilities of different SCM strategies to enhance performance; however, the emergence of Industry 4.0 technologies has bred focus on the possibility of attaining more levels of operational performance. Despite being demonstrated helpful at enabling supply chain (SC) strategies, the literature linking Industry 4.0 with SCM strategies is still in its infancy. Thus, this work investigates the degree to which “Industry 4.0 technologies” enable the implementation of lean and agile practices and subsequently assesses the potential performance implications of integrating Industry 4.0 technologies with the SC operations.

The work employs an exploratory case study approach using empirical data from selected organisations drawn from an Estonian manufacturing cluster and digital solution providing companies. The data collected via interviews were used to assign numerical scores and subsequently aggregated across the five cases for the research variables of interest. The work is crowned with a model grounded on the cross-case analysis to depict which technologies impact each of the lean and agile practices.

The analysis enabled comprehension of the potential impact and level of importance of the main Industry 4.0 technologies on lean and agile practices and ultimately the potential implication on performance. The findings revealed that the technologies have a high impact on the practices. Although the impacts are of varying degrees, the analysis provides means to identify the technologies with the most significant impact on lean and agile SCM and the sets of practices with the greatest likelihood of being enabled by various digital technologies.

The work presents various lean and agile practices that practitioners can deploy to operations, alongside the technologies that could support the implementation of the practices towards achieving the various performance measures. Also, it provides some guides for the digital solution providing companies towards understanding the SCM practices that can be improved upon by various digital technologies. This enables them to have more saleable proposals for intending companies who might be sceptical about transiting into the digital operation phase.

This is the first attempt to empirically address the connection between Industry 4.0 technologies and the integrated lean and agile strategies despite literature backing of the complementary nature of the two SCM strategies.

The world is changing fast and pace of changes that are being observed since start of the twenty-first century have never been observed before. Due to such changes and their impact, world is described in terms of Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA). The trend of industry 4.0 is also said to be an another contributing factor into the VUCA environment. The VUCA creates a lot of challenges for organization from the perspective of management and leadership. Both business and leadership agility are needed more than VUCA as the VUCA world is becoming old. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to review the literature and to summarize the understanding with regard to managing VUCA-RR world in an era of Industry 4.0. Since the advent of term VUCA, many researchers have provided theoretical model and framework to guide managers regarding to their action and strategies. But, current research postulates based upon the literature that agile management’s tools and techniques are highly effective in managing the situation of VUCA-RR in the era of Industry 4.0. The research concludes that Industry 4.0 together with VUCA-RR and indecently possess to change management challenges to organizations. The organization can be in better position to manage change management challenges posed by Industry 4.0 by implementing the agile management. The Industry 4.0 will latter compliment to agile management tools and techniques which will make any organization to become a better equipped to face the VUCA-RR world. The research has also concluded that agile management powered by Industry 4.0 enabling technologies presents enormous opportunity in the form of VUCA 2.0 (Vision, Understanding, Courage, Adoptability, Rapidity and Radicality) that can be used to square off the effect of VUCA-RR world.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an industry 4.0 (I4.0) innovation ecosystem framework by exploring the essential components of the same to ensure the collaborative efforts of different stakeholders.

In this research work, important perspectives and their sub-components for the I4.0 innovation ecosystem framework are identified by performing a systematic literature survey of peer-reviewed journal articles. Then, I4.0 challenges among higher education (HE) institutions students and industries in India are explored by adopting the questionnaire-based research approach. Finally, the importance of the identified perspectives and their sub-components and causal relations among components are analyzed by using the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method.

From the literature survey, three perspectives and their 45 sub-components are identified for the I4.0 innovation ecosystem framework. The outcomes show that the industry has a direct impact on HE institutions and the government. While HE institutions are most influenced by the industry and government.

I4.0 innovation ecosystem framework is developed by analyzing responses received through questionnaires. There are other methods also available for ecosystem framework development, which are beyond this study.

This research work will facilitate policy formulation by the government. It will also help the managers to develop strategies for the adoption of I4.0 enabling technologies in their business.

This research study gives an idea about the innovation ecosystem framework for the successful adoption of I4.0 enabling technologies in Indian Manufacturing Industries.

The present study offers a holistic but detailed understanding of the factors that might affect small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies to empower smaller businesses to embrace Industry 4.0.

The study conducted a systematic review of the literature and drew on the technology-organization-environment framework to identify various technological, organizational and environmental determinants of Industry 4.0 technology adoption and their underlying components. The study applied the textual narrative synthesis to extract findings from the eligible articles and interpret them into the Industry 4.0 technology adoption roadmap.

Industry 4.0 is a vital strategic option to SMEs, enabling them to keep up with the digitalization race. SMEs significantly lag behind large organizations in benefiting from disruptive Industry 4.0 technologies. SMEs are still struggling with the initial adoption decisions regarding the digital transformation under Industry 4.0. Results identified various determinants that might explain this condition. The study developed a digitalization roadmap that describes the necessary conditions for facilitating SMEs’ digitalization under Industry 4.0.

Various technological, organizational and environmental factors might determine the current positioning of SMEs against Industry 4.0. These determinants can act as barriers or drivers depending on their properties. The roadmap describes determinants indispensable to promoting Industry 4.0 technology adoption among SMEs, such as knowledge competencies or value chain digitalization readiness.

Exclusively focusing on empirical research that reported applied insights into Industry 4.0 technology adoption, the study offers unique implications for promoting Industry 4.0 digital transformation among SMEs.