Track: Industry 4.0

Abstract

The fourth industrial revolution, known as Industry 4.0, and its underlying digital transformation advances exponentially each year. People's lives and workplaces are radically changing due to this digital revolution. By methodically identifying specific sustainability roles of Industry 4.0, this paper adds to the existing corpus of literature on the subject. The study first explains the architectural design of Industry 4.0 and reviews key design concepts and technological trends. The Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), cloud-based manufacturing, and smart manufacturing are the four driving forces behind Industry 4.0, and they all contribute to manufacturing processes becoming totally digital and intelligent. Manufacturing processes of separated and improved cells will be transformed into a fully integrated, automated, and improved production flow attributed to nine Industry 4.0 pillars; (1) Big Data and Analytics (2) Autonomous Robots (3) Simulation/Digital Twin (4) Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) (5) Augmented Reality (6) Additive Manufacturing (7) Cybersecurity (8) Cloud Computing (9) Horizontal and Vertical System Integration. As a result, conventional production connections between suppliers, producers, and customers, as well as between people and machines, evolve and become more efficient. This study also uses interpretive structural modeling to illustrate the relationships between the various Industry 4.0 sustainability roles in their environment. The findings show complex precedence relationships between several Industry 4.0 sustainability functions. The manufacturing sector and the economics of value creation are being transformed by Industry 4.0. The advantages of Industry 4.0 technology for sustainable development have received much positive attention in recent years. Expectations for the opportunities that Industry 4.0 technologies offer for smart manufacturing are very high, but a significant roadblock for companies pursuing digitalization and sustainable thinking is the need for a more accurate understanding of how Industry 4.0 technologies enable sustainable manufacturing. This current study fills that knowledge gap by creating a road map that shows how Industry 4.0 and its underlying digital technologies may be exploited to support and enable the triple bottom line of smart manufacturing.