IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i6p5078-d1095913.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Industry 4.0 and Beyond: A Review of the Literature on the Challenges and Barriers Facing the Agri-Food Supply Chain

Author

Listed:
  • Arman Derakhti

    (Industrial Engineering Department, Universidad de Talca, Curico 3340000, Chile)

  • Ernesto D. R. Santibanez Gonzalez

    (Industrial Engineering Department, CES4.0, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de Talca, Los Niches Km. 1, Edificio I+D, Curico 3340000, Chile)

  • Abbas Mardani

    (Muma Business School, University of South Florida (USF), Tampa, FL 33612, USA)

Abstract

In recent years, the Industry 4.0 concept has gained considerable attention from professionals, researchers and decision makers. For its part, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of managing the agri-food supply chain to ensure the food that the population needs. Industry 4.0 and its extensions can address the needs of the agri-food supply chain by bringing new features such as security, transparency and traceability in line with sustainable development goals. This study aims to systematically analyze the literature to address the challenges and barriers against the application of industry 4.0 and its related technologies in the management of an agri-food supply chain. Currently, despite the large number of publications, there is no clear agreement on what Industry 4.0 is, and even less its extensions. The next revolution that includes new technologies and improves several existing technologies brings additional conceptual and practical complexity. Consequently, in this work we first determine the main components of I 4.0 and their extensions by studying the literature, and then, in the second step, define the agri-food supply chain on which I 4.0 technologies are applied. Two well-known databases—Web of Science and Scopus—were chosen to extract data for the systematic review of the literature. For the final evaluation, we identified 24 of 100 reviewed publications. The results provide an exhaustive analysis of the different I 4.0 technologies and their extensions that are applied in regards to the agri-food supply chain. In addition, we find 15 challenges that are classified into five major themes in the agri-food supply chain: technical, operational, financial, social and infrastructure. The four most important challenges identified are technological architecture, security and privacy, big data management and IoT (internet)-based infrastructure. Only a few articles addressed sustainability, which reaffirms and demonstrates a considerable gap in terms of the sustainable agri-food supply chain, with waste management being the one that has attracted the most attention. This review provides a roadmap for academics and practitioners alike, showing the gaps and facilitating the identification of I 4.0 technologies that can help address the challenges facing the efficient management of an agri-food supply chain.

Suggested Citation

  • Arman Derakhti & Ernesto D. R. Santibanez Gonzalez & Abbas Mardani, 2023. "Industry 4.0 and Beyond: A Review of the Literature on the Challenges and Barriers Facing the Agri-Food Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-22, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:6:p:5078-:d:1095913
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/6/5078/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/6/5078/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee, In & Lee, Kyoochun, 2015. "The Internet of Things (IoT): Applications, investments, and challenges for enterprises," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 431-440.
    2. Jacopo Grecuccio & Edoardo Giusto & Fabio Fiori & Maurizio Rebaudengo, 2020. "Combining Blockchain and IoT: Food-Chain Traceability and Beyond," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-19, July.
    3. Salin, Victoria, 1998. "Information Technology In Agri-Food Supply Chains," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 1(3), pages 1-6.
    4. Jianli Luo & Chen Ji & Chunxiao Qiu & Fu Jia, 2018. "Agri-Food Supply Chain Management: Bibliometric and Content Analyses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-22, May.
    5. Pan Wang & Ricardo Valerdi & Shangming Zhou & Ling Li, 2015. "Introduction: Advances in IoT research and applications," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 239-241, April.
    6. Sanjeev Yadav & Dixit Garg & Sunil Luthra, 2020. "Analysing challenges for internet of things adoption in agriculture supply chain management," International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 36(1), pages 73-97.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vincenzo Varriale & Antonello Cammarano & Francesca Michelino & Mauro Caputo, 2021. "Sustainable Supply Chains with Blockchain, IoT and RFID: A Simulation on Order Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-23, June.
    2. Panagiotis Trivellas & Georgios Malindretos & Panagiotis Reklitis, 2020. "Implications of Green Logistics Management on Sustainable Business and Supply Chain Performance: Evidence from a Survey in the Greek Agri-Food Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-29, December.
    3. Tuğçe Taşkıner & Bilge Bilgen, 2021. "Optimization Models for Harvest and Production Planning in Agri-Food Supply Chain: A Systematic Review," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-27, August.
    4. Leonel Jorge Ribeiro Nunes & Radu Godina & João Carlos de Oliveira Matias, 2019. "Technological Innovation in Biomass Energy for the Sustainable Growth of Textile Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-12, January.
    5. Nino Paresashvili & Maia Nikvashvili, 2019. "Career Management Peculiarities in Educational Institutions," European Journal of Economics and Business Studies Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 5, January -.
    6. Saddam A. Hazaea & Ebrahim Mohammed Al-Matari & Saleh F. A. Khatib & Khaldoon Albitar & Jinyu Zhu, 2023. "Internal Auditing in the Arab World: A Systematic Literature Review and Directions for Future Research," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, October.
    7. Athanasios Tsipis & Asterios Papamichail & Ioannis Angelis & George Koufoudakis & Georgios Tsoumanis & Konstantinos Oikonomou, 2020. "An Alertness-Adjustable Cloud/Fog IoT Solution for Timely Environmental Monitoring Based on Wildfire Risk Forecasting," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-35, July.
    8. Bent Flyvbjerg & Alexander Budzier & Jong Seok Lee & Mark Keil & Daniel Lunn & Dirk W. Bester, 2022. "The Empirical Reality of IT Project Cost Overruns: Discovering A Power-Law Distribution," Papers 2210.01573, arXiv.org.
    9. Chae, Bongsug (Kevin), 2018. "The Internet of Things (IoT): A Survey of Topics and Trends using Twitter Data and Topic Modeling," 22nd ITS Biennial Conference, Seoul 2018. Beyond the boundaries: Challenges for business, policy and society 190376, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    10. Bettina Freitag & Lukas Häfner & Verena Pfeuffer & Jochen Übelhör, 2020. "Evaluating investments in flexible on-demand production capacity: a real options approach," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 13(1), pages 133-161, April.
    11. Akhtar, Pervaiz & Khan, Zaheer & Tarba, Shlomo & Jayawickrama, Uchitha, 2018. "The Internet of Things, dynamic data and information processing capabilities, and operational agility," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 307-316.
    12. Li, Ying & Dai, Jing & Cui, Li, 2020. "The impact of digital technologies on economic and environmental performance in the context of industry 4.0: A moderated mediation model," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    13. Osterrieder, Philipp & Budde, Lukas & Friedli, Thomas, 2020. "The smart factory as a key construct of industry 4.0: A systematic literature review," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    14. Elias G. Carayannis & David F. J. Campbell, 2021. "Democracy of Climate and Climate for Democracy: the Evolution of Quadruple and Quintuple Helix Innovation Systems," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(4), pages 2050-2082, December.
    15. Kumar, V. & Ramachandran, Divya & Kumar, Binay, 2021. "Influence of new-age technologies on marketing: A research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 864-877.
    16. Rasha Allam & Hesham Dinana, 2021. "The Future of TV and Online Video Platforms: A Study on Predictors of Use and Interaction with Content in the Egyptian Evolving Telecomm, Media & Entertainment Industries," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, August.
    17. Madhukar Patil & M. Suresh, 2019. "Modelling the Enablers of Workforce Agility in IoT Projects: A TISM Approach," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 20(2), pages 157-175, June.
    18. Abdel Ghafar, Ahmed Ismail & Vazquez Castro, Ágeles & Essam Khedr, Mohamed, 2019. "Multidimensional Self-Organizing Chord-Based Networking for Internet of Things," 2nd Europe – Middle East – North African Regional ITS Conference, Aswan 2019: Leveraging Technologies For Growth 201736, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    19. Vasja Roblek & Maja Meško & Alojz Krapež, 2016. "A Complex View of Industry 4.0," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(2), pages 21582440166, June.
    20. Filippi, Maryline & Chapdaniel, Alain, 2020. "Sustainable demand-supply chain: an innovative approach for improving sustainability in agrifood chains," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 24(2), March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:6:p:5078-:d:1095913. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.