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The accelerating business transformation through Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is expected to create significant value in the manufacturing industry by delivering considerably high productivity, superior quality, better efficiency and effectiveness. However, its evolutionary processes have far-reaching challenging for humanity. This has triggered a need to analyze the impact of I4.0 on various people-centric variables (PCVs).

This paper attempts to analyze the interrelationship dynamics between the PCVs in the current digital-industry ecosystem using a focus-group approach and causal loop diagrams. Application of the SWARA (stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis) methodology has provided its prioritized ranking in terms of importance.

The study has highlighted that I4.0 has a significant influence on five of the 13 PCVs – human quality of life, digital dexterity, high-skilled talent, low-skilled employment and creativity which contribute to 80% of the total impact.

The prioritized weights of the human factors from the SWARA approach have facilitated the assessment of the Human Resource Development Index (HRDI). The study is also contributing in enriching the literature on the human impact of the growing I4.0 and triggered the researchers to study further its adverse impact on critical human factors.

1. The paper pertains to debates on a very critical issue of impact of integration of the current intelligent digital technologies in manufacturing and services to transform businesses to be more flexible and agile.

2. This paper features I4.0 as a technology that allows integration of new products in the existing production lines, one-off manufacturing runs and high mix manufacturing.

3. The paper also highlights major adjustments in operational activities, processes, supply chain, and organizational redesign due to I4.0 adoption.

4. The current research study has significantly enriched the literature on the I4.0 impact on people-centric variables (PCVs) using the SWARA method. The use of the Causal Loop Diagram has very aptly brought out the type of causality (polarity) between the different PCVs in the growth of I4.0.

The paper pertains to debates on a very critical issue of impact of integration of the current intelligent digital technologies in manufacturing and services to transform businesses to be more flexible and agile.

This paper features I4.0 as a technology that allows integration of new products in the existing production lines, one-off manufacturing runs and high mix manufacturing.

The paper also highlights major adjustments in operational activities, processes, supply chain, and organizational redesign due to I4.0 adoption.

The current research study has significantly enriched the literature on the I4.0 impact on people-centric variables (PCVs) using the SWARA method. The use of the Causal Loop Diagram has very aptly brought out the type of causality (polarity) between the different PCVs in the growth of I4.0.

The paper aims to clarify the relationship of various enablers of supply chain (SC) management like lean enablers, agile enablers and leagile enablers. It proposes modeling the enablers to find the most appropriate strategy or methodology for determining the lean enabled SC agility.

The paper proposed the fuzzy SWARA-WASPAS methodology for determining the role of lean in enabling the SC agility. Also in continuation the AHP methodology is applied to find the priority weightage and ranking of leagile enablers, and a comparative analysis is done to select the best approach among the above two methodologies so that it would be beneficial for all the stakeholders.

The paper provides the investigation and identification of 28 lean enablers, 11 agile factors which are highly responsible to affect any SC specially focusing of automobile sector. Apart from above 9 leagile enablers were also identified in the paper. Finally, the comparative analysis has been done in the results obtained by two methodologies – AHP & fuzzy SWARA-WASPAS – to determine the lean enabled SC agility, and also to which strategy should be adopted by the organizations as per the customized requirement of their SC.

The research limitation is that in future, there may be more number of lean, agile and leagile enablers which may be explored by different researchers in their findings, which may vary the output result accordingly. Though the research implications focus on having an advantage and impact on all aspects whether it is social, economic or commercial, there is a possibility of exploration of new and better decision-making tools and approaches in future. Also, the researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further by taking case study of any automobile manufacturing organizations for the validation of the results.

The paper includes implications for the development of a powerful interrelationships between lean enablers, agile enablers and leagile enablers, which will help organization and the managers to take decisions regarding selection of best strategy appropriate to them to enhance their SC. This will also help new researchers of the field to take help of the research findings for exploring new and better optimization tools and techniques in future.

The findings of the research work will definitely help society, as the successful implementation of the lean, agile or leagile strategies in their SC system will leads to an increase in their efficiency and productivity, which will ultimately results in huge advantage to all the stakeholders directly or indirectly connected with the organization. The productivity dynamics cycle will also improve which will lead to more benefits to all in the market and achieving higher living index with better living standards.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study the various enablers of lean, agile and leagile SC, as well as their interrelationships. Also there is a need to understand the importance and effect of lean in enabling the SC agility.

The purpose of this study was to develop a multi-criteria-based scoring model to upgrade the work stress prevention checkpoints to a stress-management tool for estimating the risk score of the workplace’s stressors and prioritizing the control solutions.

A Panel of ten experts was formed and capitalized on Fuzzy Delphi, Fuzzy DEMATEL, and SWARA methods to discover the decision criteria, obtain the weights of the checkpoints’ dimensions, and develop the system to be used in an organization. The developed tool is finally applied in an organization as a case study.

Five criteria, namely Intellectual, Physical, Emotional, Behavioral, and Organizational reactions were found with respect to which the dimensions were prioritized. Generally, the heaviest weight belonged to “Job demand” by 0.13, followed by “Work-life balance and working times”, “Social support”, “Leadership and justice at work”, “Job control”, and “Job security” with weights of 0.118, 0.116, 0.114, 0.11, and 0.1, respectively. The “information and communication” had the lowest weight by 0.062.

It was found that multiple stress-related factors have different importance that can be considered in work-related stress (WRS) assessments. To this end, combining MCDM methods is a suitable approach to determine the factors’ importance coefficients.

This tool allows an organization to control work stress on the basis of one particular criterion or multiple criteria. The case study results showed that this tool makes the implementation of corrective measures much easier to manage based on the risk level of each dimension.

Logistics service provider (LSP) selection involves multiple criteria, alternatives and decision makers. Group decision-making involves vagueness and uncertainty. This paper aims to propose a novel fuzzy method for assessing and selecting agile, resilient and sustainable LSP, taking care of the inconsistency and uncertainty in subjective group ratings.

Eighteen agile, resilient, operational, economic, environmental and social sustainability criteria were identified from the literature and discussion with experts. Interval-valued Fermatean fuzzy (IVFF) sets are more flexible and accurate for handling complex uncertainty, impreciseness and inconsistency in group ratings. The IVFF PIvot Pairwise RElative Criteria Importance Assessment Simplified (IVFF-PIPRECIAS) and IVFF weighted aggregated sum product assessment (IVFF-WASPAS) methods are applied to determine criteria weights and LSP evaluation, respectively.

Collaboration and partnership, range of services, capacity flexibility, geographic coverage, cost of service and environmental safeguard are found to have a greater influence on the LSP selection, as per this study. The LSP (L3) with the highest score (0.949) is the best agile, resilient and sustainable LSP in the manufacturing industry.

Hybrid IVFF-based PIPRECIAS and WASPAS methods are proposed for the selection of agile, resilient and sustainable LSP in the manufacturing industry.

The model can help supply chain managers in the manufacturing industry to easily adopt the hybrid model for agile, resilient and sustainable LSP selection.

The paper also contributes to the social sustainability of logistics workers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, IVFF-PIPRECIAS and IVFF-WASPAS methods are applied for the first time to select the best agile, resilient and sustainable LSP in a developing economy context.

Sustainability, as we all know has become such a crucial global matter that even the United Nations has not failed to take cognizance of it and has addressed the same through the formation of ‘Sustainable Development Goals’. As per an article on Global Reporting Initiative's Medium platform, it has been estimated that ‘the supply chain activities of a firm account for around 90% of its sustainability impressions’ (according to Sustainalytics' future-proofing supply chains study). Taking this view forward, sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is one such area which has acquired substantial significance in the recent times. Studies in the area of SSCM has found an increasing attention especially in the past two decades. This paper strives to review the recent literature in SSCM to identify the recent trends in this area of research. The paper attempts to identify the contemporary and upcoming research topics and also the research gaps in the field of SSCM which could act as a potential source of further research for the academia.

The aim is to analyze the European eco-management because the global warming has become a topical issue impacting the whole world. Individual countries are trying to minimize all the catalysts of global warming, such as carbon emissions. This paper addresses this issue and analyzes the performance of European eco-management for the purpose of future energy investments being environmentally.

This paper develops a fuzzy decision-making model to study the performance indicators of selected countries based on EMAS III standard. It employs interval type-2 fuzzy DEMATEL to evaluate the performance factors and TOPSIS methodology to assess five selected European countries' performance in relation to eco-friendly, emission and renewable energy.

Eco-friendly energy plays the most critical role in this respect followed by emissions and renewable energy which constitute significant factors. The novelty of this study is identifying significant criteria regarding environmental and energy efficiency of investments and making performance assessments of European countries with a new fuzzy decision-making model. Both expert opinions and datasets are used for the analysis. This paper supports previous research about energy efficiency investments in Europe.

The innovative feature of this study is identifying significant criteria regarding environmental and energy efficiency of investments and assessing the performance of European countries with a new fuzzy decision-making model. The fact that the analysis only concerns the European region is an important limitation. In future analyses, other groups of countries can be examined. Innovations can be made regarding the method applied. In this context, analyses can be done utilizing different fuzzy numbers. Finally, the importance of the criteria can be calculated with other methods such as SWARA.

The paper fills the gap in performance analysis of European eco-management for environmentally friendly and efficient energy investments is done in this manuscript.

Analysis of European eco-management performance was done for environmentally friendly and efficient energy investments. A fuzzy decision-making model is constructed. The paper fills the gap in performance analysis of European eco-management for environmentally friendly and efficient energy investments.

The study aims to explore the available academic literature on the decision-making frameworks used in additive manufacturing management (AMM).

This research formulates a systematic literature review to determine the research trend of the decision-making framework in AMM. Further, the theory, context, characteristics, and methodology (TCCM) framework is used to identify the research gaps and suggest future research directions.

The systematic literature review (SLR) delves into overarching research themes within decision-making frameworks in AMM. Additionally, it uncovers trends in article publication, geographical distribution, methodologies utilized, and industry applications. This review not only reveals research gaps but also proposes directions for future exploration.

The key novelty of this research lies in revealing the five most contributing themes of decision-making frameworks in AMM, with the highest contributing theme being AM process selection, followed by part selection for AM. This finding enables decision-makers to make informed decisions to address similar problems while exploring AM technology. Moreover, this research introduces an AM part fabrication roadmap inspired by the literature review. Lastly, the paper highlights key research gaps for future research.

Criteria importance through intercriteria correlation (CRITIC) is a multicriteria decision-making method that helps compute the weights of decision criteria by considering the contrast intensity and conflicting relationships inherent in each criterion. This study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis to provide quantitative insights into the research trends concerning the CRITIC method.

The study assembled bibliographic data from 220 CRITIC-based publications retrieved from the Scopus database. Subsequently, the gathered data were processed using Tableau software, using specific functions within the software to format them to suit the analysis requirements. Following data preparation, a visual analysis was then conducted based on five parameters that can characterize the research evolutions in CRITIC. These parameters include research productivity across years, dominant countries, dominant researchers, dominant publication outlets and popular research topics. Various visualization techniques, such as combined charts, geographical maps and word clouds, were used to draw conclusions for each parameter.

The study discovered a burgeoning trend in CRITIC research in recent years, particularly from 2019 onwards. The COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly contributed to this upward trend, prompting remarkable collaboration among researchers who used diverse decision-making methods, such as CRITIC, to provide data-driven solutions for addressing COVID-19 challenges. Additionally, the study identified China and Iran as the leading countries in CRITIC research, with notable researchers such as Xindong Peng and Mehdi Keshavarz-Ghorabaee predominantly affiliated with institutions in these countries. Keyword analysis indicated the application of CRITIC across various trending topics, including Industry 4.0 and environmental sustainability.

No bibliometric analyses have been conducted on the CRITIC method in the literature since its inception in 1995, leaving the scientific community clueless about its research trends. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study serves as the first bibliometric analysis, providing quantitative evidence on the research trends associated with the CRITIC method. By shedding light on these trends, this study enables the scientific community, including researchers and funding agencies, to make informed decisions regarding future research endeavors involving the CRITIC method.

This paper aims to examine and compare extant literature on the application of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques in humanitarian operations (HOs) and humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). It identifies the status of existing research in the field and suggests a roadmap for academicians to undertake further research in HOs and HSCs using MCDM techniques.

The paper systematically reviews the research on MCDM applications in HO and HSC domains from 2011 to 2022, as the field gained traction post-2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami phenomena. In the first step, an exhaustive search for journal articles is conducted using 48 keyword searches. To ensure quality, only those articles published in journals featuring in the first quartile of the Scimago Journal Ranking were selected. A total of 103 peer-reviewed articles were selected for the review and then segregated into different categories for analysis.

The paper highlights insufficient high-quality research in HOs that utilizes MCDM methods. It proposes a roadmap for scholars to enhance the research outcomes by advocating adopting mixed methods. The analysis of various studies revealed a notable absence of contextual reference. A contextual mind map specific to HOs has been developed to assist future research endeavors. This resource can guide researchers in determining the appropriate contextual framework for their studies.

This paper will help practitioners understand the research carried out in the field. The aspiring researchers will identify the gap in the extant research and work on future research directions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first literature review on applying MCDM in HOs and HSCs. It summarises the current status and proposes future research directions.

The purpose of this study is to establish a synthetic group decision framework based on the Pythagorean fuzzy (PF) set to select the optimal medicine cold chain logistics provider (MCCLP). Fierce market competition makes enterprises must constantly improve every link in the process of enterprise sustainable development. The evaluation of MCCLP in pharmaceutical enterprises is an important link to enhance the comprehensive competitiveness. Because of the fuzziness of expert cognition and the complexity of the decision procedure, PF set can effectively handle the uncertainty and ambiguity in the process of multi-criteria group decision decision-making (MCGDM).

This paper develops an integrated group decision framework through combining the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique and combined compromise solution (CoCoSo) approach to select a satisfactory MCCLP within PF circumstances. First, the PF set is used to process the ambiguity and uncertainty of the cognition ability of experts. Second, a novel PF knowledge measure is propounded to measure the vagueness of the PF set. Third, a comprehensive criterion weight determination technique is developed through aggregating subjective weights attained utilizing the PF DEMATEL approach and objective weight deduced by knowledge measure method. Furthermore, an integrated MCGDM approach based on synthetic weight and CoCoSo method is constructed.

The outcomes of sensibility analysis and comparison investigation show that the suggested decision framework can help decision experts to choose a satisfactory MCCLP scientifically and reasonably. Accordingly, the propounded comprehensive decision framework can be recommended to enterprises and organizations to assess the MCCLP for their improvement of core competitiveness.

MCCLP selection is not only momentous for pharmaceutical enterprises to improve transportation quality and ensure medicine safety but also provides a strong guarantee for enterprises to improve their core competitiveness. Nevertheless, enterprises face certain challenges due to the uncertainty of the assessment environment as well as human cognition in the process of choosing a satisfactory MCCLP. PF set possesses a formidable capability to address the uncertainty and imprecision information in the process of MCGDM. Therefore, pharmaceutical enterprises can implement the proposed method to evaluate the suppliers to further improve the comprehensive profit of enterprises.