Framework development and evaluation of Industry 4.0 technological aspects towards improving the circular economy-based supply chain

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to present Industry 4.0 technologies for advancing the circular economy (CE) adaption in manufacturing industry’s supply chain (SC) network. To pursue the same, Industry 4.0 technological aspects were recognized as solution measures to overcome the challenges for CE implementation in SC. Design methodology approach A new hierarchical framework containing 13 leading CE challenges and eight promising Industry 4.0 technological aspects had been proposed, representing their mutual relationship. The proposed framework was analysed using a hybrid approach of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and combinative distance-based assessment (CODAS) under interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy (IVIF) environment. The IVIF-AHP was used to acquire the priority weights of the CE challenges, whereas the IVIF-CODAS was used to attain the preference order of the proposed technological aspects. Findings The key findings of the present work indicate that “Information disruptions among the SC members due to multiple channels” and “Manpower inability to handle the toxic materials” are the two most critical challenges hindering the adoption of CE practices in SC. Along with, the results also demonstrate that to overcome these challenges, “Smarter equipment to empower flexibility and mass customization” and “Big data driven decision-making system” are the two most significant Industry 4.0 technological solutions, adoption of which might encourage the organizations to align their operations with CE philosophies. Research limitations implications The sample size of the experts engaged in work was limited; however, big data studies could be conducted in future to capture more insights of the stated topic. In addition to this, to understand the implication of CE on Industry 4.0-based manufacturing, a separate study can be synthesised in future. Originality value The proposed work facilitates a new framework consolidating various perspectives associated with CE implementation into a manufacturing industry considering the scenario of Indian rubber industry. This study enables the decision-makers to recognize the challenging factors for CE implementation into their organizations and up-taking the proposed Industry 4.0 practices as technological measures for improving the organization overall performance.

Circular Economy and Fuzzy Set Theory: A Bibliometric and Systematic Review Based on Industry 4.0 Technologies Perspective

“…Among the 305 publications retrieved, 32 were related to FST, CE, and I4.0 technologies, all of which were published in 2020 or later, demonstrating that recent advances in science and technology have contributed to the formation and advancement of this cross-cutting field. These studies used various fuzzy approaches to address the content of different research themes, 20 of these publications were about barrier research (Agarwal et al, 2022;Luthra et al, 2022;Shang et al, 2022), with others about driver analysis (Zhang et al, 2021a), supplier selection (Kusi-Sarpong et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2020), relationship analysis (Belhadi et al, 2021), and performance evaluation (Agarwal et al, 2022;Karuppiah et al, 2022). Table 9 covers some critical studies that have significantly contributed to integrating CE and I4.0 technologies, along with their research themes, background, methodologies, and outcomes.…”

Circular Economy Reinforcement to Diminish GHG Emissions: A grey DEMATEL Approach

“…Material information and platform sharing solutions, together with better ways to use side-streams and by-products, are governed by logistics digitalization. Digitalization tracks the waste streams, discarded products, the kind of material used in the product, and recycling and remanufacturing of an end product that supports decreasing waste and related emissions 53,55,56) .…”

Industry 4.0 in “Major Emerging Markets”: A Systematic Literature Review of Benefits, Use, Challenges, and Mitigation Strategies in Supply Chain Management

“…The absence of standards or inconsistent international standards is a significant technological risk [17]. Poor integration of IT systems among supply chain partners and fear of losing data are challenges [84]. Companies involved in the pharmaceutical supply chain cannot integrate all information in various parts of the supply chain due to the sensitivity of the information.…”

“…There was a lack of approval for significant investment in newer technologies, probably due to a lack of awareness of the value of Industry 4.0 [73]. Lack of executive management support was one of the six barriers to adopting Industry 4.0 among manufacturers [84].…”