IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/proeco/v282y2025ics0925527325000222.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unveiling the interaction among circular economy, industry 4.0, and lean production: A multiple case study analysis and an empirically based framework

Author

Listed:
  • Cannas, Violetta Giada
  • Pozzi, Rossella
  • Saporiti, Nicolò
  • Urbinati, Andrea

Abstract

Recent years have seen a growing interest among academics and practitioners in the approaches of Industry 4.0 (I40), Lean Production (LP), and Circular Economy (CE). Scientific studies have largely examined these approaches separately, or in a dual, pairwise combination. More recent research has also shown how I40 technologies and LP practices affect the implementation of CE strategies. In particular, it has been noted that I40 technologies and LP practices mutually not only enhance each other's efficacy but also have a positive impact on CE strategies. Despite this evidence, many of the existing works leave a critical gap in our knowledge about an integrated perspective among these three approaches. In other words, a more synergistic interaction among the I40 technologies, LP practices, and CE strategies is not yet well explored in the existing academic literature and needs to be developed. To address this research gap, this study leverages a multiple case study analysis of six companies operating in the manufacturing sector that operate with I40 technologies, LP practices, and CE strategies. Our results confirm that I40 technologies and LP practices foster each other and enable CE strategies. In addition, our empirical analysis adds to the existing studies that the synergistic interaction among the three approaches lies in the fact that the implementation of one approach triggers another one sequentially. In other words, the implementation of I40 technologies contributes to the activation of LP practices, which in turn enable the adoption of CE strategies. The evidence of our results has been visualized in empirically based framework that highlights for scholars and managers how manufacturing companies can optimize their transition pathway towards CE through I40 technologies and LP practices and paving thus the way for a more sustainable and effective industrial environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Cannas, Violetta Giada & Pozzi, Rossella & Saporiti, Nicolò & Urbinati, Andrea, 2025. "Unveiling the interaction among circular economy, industry 4.0, and lean production: A multiple case study analysis and an empirically based framework," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:282:y:2025:i:c:s0925527325000222
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109537
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527325000222
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109537?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zheng, Ting & Ardolino, Marco & Bacchetti, Andrea & Perona, Marco, 2021. "The applications of Industry 4.0 technologies in manufacturing context: a systematic literature review," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 129469, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    2. Roberto Rocca & Paolo Rosa & Claudio Sassanelli & Luca Fumagalli & Sergio Terzi, 2020. "Integrating Virtual Reality and Digital Twin in Circular Economy Practices: A Laboratory Application Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-27, March.
    3. S.K. Breja & D.K. Banwet & K.C. Iyer, 2011. "Developing a creative–inventive framework for strategic management and sustainable business excellence," International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 8(1), pages 1-32.
    4. Frédéric Rosin & Pascal Forget & Samir Lamouri & Robert Pellerin, 2020. "Impacts of Industry 4.0 technologies on Lean principles," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(6), pages 1644-1661, March.
    5. Maria Pia Ciano & Patrick Dallasega & Guido Orzes & Tommaso Rossi, 2021. "One-to-one relationships between Industry 4.0 technologies and Lean Production techniques: a multiple case study," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(5), pages 1386-1410, March.
    6. Zelin Zhang & Jianghua Wu & Feiqiong Wei, 2019. "Refurbishment or quality recovery: joint quality and pricing decisions for new product development," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(8), pages 2327-2343, April.
    7. Rossella Pozzi & Violetta Giada Cannas & Maria Pia Ciano, 2022. "Linking data science to lean production: a model to support lean practices," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(22), pages 6866-6887, November.
    8. Usama Awan & Robert Sroufe & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2021. "Industry 4.0 and the circular economy: A literature review and recommendations for future research," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 2038-2060, May.
    9. Sven-Vegard Buer & Jan Ola Strandhagen & Felix T. S. Chan, 2018. "The link between Industry 4.0 and lean manufacturing: mapping current research and establishing a research agenda," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(8), pages 2924-2940, April.
    10. Ting Zheng & Marco Ardolino & Andrea Bacchetti & Marco Perona, 2021. "The applications of Industry 4.0 technologies in manufacturing context: a systematic literature review," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(6), pages 1922-1954, March.
    11. Paolo Rosa & Claudio Sassanelli & Andrea Urbinati & Davide Chiaroni & Sergio Terzi, 2020. "Assessing relations between Circular Economy and Industry 4.0: a systematic literature review," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(6), pages 1662-1687, March.
    12. Kirchherr, Julian & Reike, Denise & Hekkert, Marko, 2017. "Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 221-232.
    13. Julian Kirchherr & Andrea Urbinati & Kris Hartley, 2023. "Circular economy: A new research field?," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(5), pages 1239-1251, October.
    14. Manuel Parente & Gonçalo Figueira & Pedro Amorim & Alexandra Marques, 2020. "Production scheduling in the context of Industry 4.0: review and trends," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(17), pages 5401-5431, September.
    15. Morteza Ghobakhloo & Masood Fathi & Mohammad Iranmanesh & Parisa Maroufkhani & Manuel E Morales, 2021. "Industry 4.0 ten years on: A bibliometric and systematic review of concepts, sustainability value drivers, and success determinants," Post-Print hal-04633295, HAL.
    16. Cristina Ciliberto & Katarzyna Szopik‐Depczyńska & Małgorzata Tarczyńska‐Łuniewska & Alessandro Ruggieri & Giuseppe Ioppolo, 2021. "Enabling the Circular Economy transition: a sustainable lean manufacturing recipe for Industry 4.0," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 3255-3272, November.
    17. Ainhoa Goienetxea Uriarte & Amos H.C. Ng & Matías Urenda Moris, 2020. "Bringing together Lean and simulation: a comprehensive review," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(1), pages 87-117, January.
    18. Saporiti, Nicolò & Cannas, Violetta Giada & Pozzi, Rossella & Rossi, Tommaso, 2023. "Challenges and countermeasures for digital twin implementation in manufacturing plants: A Delphi study," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    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. Alok Raj & Anand Jeyaraj, 2023. "Antecedents and consequents of industry 4.0 adoption using technology, organization and environment (TOE) framework: A meta-analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 322(1), pages 101-124, March.
    2. Andrew Wear, 2023. "Emergent concepts in local economic development," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 38(8), pages 804-826, December.
    3. Srikant Gupta & Rajesh Kumar Singh & Chintan Amrit, 2025. "Integrating Industry 4.0 with Circular Economy Approach for Sustainable and Flexible Manufacturing Systems," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 26(1), pages 115-145, March.
    4. Govindan, Kannan & Kannan, Devika & Jørgensen, Thomas Ballegård & Nielsen, Tim Straarup, 2022. "Supply Chain 4.0 performance measurement: A systematic literature review, framework development, and empirical evidence," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    5. Magdalena Rusch & Josef‐Peter Schöggl & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2023. "Application of digital technologies for sustainable product management in a circular economy: A review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 1159-1174, March.
    6. Bueno, Adauto & Goyannes Gusmão Caiado, Rodrigo & Guedes de Oliveira, Thaís Lopes & Scavarda, Luiz Felipe & Filho, Moacir Godinho & Tortorella, Guilherme Luz, 2023. "Lean 4.0 implementation framework: Proposition using a multi-method research approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    7. Biman Darshana Hettiarachchi & Stefan Seuring & Marcus Brandenburg, 2022. "Industry 4.0-driven operations and supply chains for the circular economy: a bibliometric analysis," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 858-878, December.
    8. Liu, Yanping & Farooque, Muhammad & Lee, Chang-Hun & Gong, Yu & Zhang, Abraham, 2023. "Antecedents of circular manufacturing and its effect on environmental and financial performance: A practice-based view," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    9. Piccarozzi, Michela & Silvestri, Luca & Silvestri, Cecilia & Ruggieri, Alessandro, 2024. "Roadmap to Industry 5.0: Enabling technologies, challenges, and opportunities towards a holistic definition in management studies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    10. Cagno, Enrico & Accordini, Davide & Thollander, Patrik & Andrei, Mariana & Hasan, A S M Monjurul & Pessina, Sonia & Trianni, Andrea, 2025. "Energy management and industry 4.0: Analysis of the enabling effects of digitalization on the implementation of energy management practices," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 390(C).
    11. Alessandra Neri & Marta Negri & Enrico Cagno & Simone Franzò & Vikas Kumar & Tommaso Lampertico & Carlo Andrea Bassani, 2023. "The role of digital technologies in supporting the implementation of circular economy practices by industrial small and medium enterprises," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4693-4718, November.
    12. Antonio Sartal & Josep Llach & Fernando León-Mateos, 2022. "“Do technologies really affect that much? exploring the potential of several industry 4.0 technologies in today’s lean manufacturing shop floors”," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 6075-6106, November.
    13. Sehrish Atif, 2023. "Analysing the alignment between circular economy and industry 4.0 nexus with industry 5.0 era: An integrative systematic literature review," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 2155-2175, August.
    14. Dounia Skalli & Abdelkabir Charkaoui & Anass Cherrafi & Jose Arturo Garza‐Reyes & Jiju Antony & Alireza Shokri, 2024. "Analyzing the integrated effect of circular economy, Lean Six Sigma, and Industry 4.0 on sustainable manufacturing performance from a practice‐based view perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 1208-1226, February.
    15. Matt, Dominik T. & Pedrini, Giulio & Bonfanti, Angelo & Orzes, Guido, 2023. "Industrial digitalization. A systematic literature review and research agenda," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 47-78.
    16. Yasanur Kayikci & Nazlican Gozacan‐Chase & Abderahman Rejeb, 2024. "Blockchain entrepreneurship roles for circular supply chain transition," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 197-222, February.
    17. An, Hongda & Galera-Zarco, Carlos, 2025. "Tackling food waste and loss through digitalization in the food supply chain: A systematic review and framework development," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    18. Yu, Yubing & Zhang, Justin Zuopeng & Cao, Yanhong & Kazancoglu, Yigit, 2021. "Intelligent transformation of the manufacturing industry for Industry 4.0: Seizing financial benefits from supply chain relationship capital through enterprise green management," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    19. Fatih Albayrak & Oğuz Poyrazoğlu, 2024. "A Systematic Literature Review on Lean, Industry 4.0, and Digital Factory," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 13486-13508, September.
    20. Juhás Martin & Juhásová Bohuslava & Nemlaha Eduard & Charvát Dominik, 2021. "Increasing the Efficiency of a Robotic Cell Using Simulation," Research Papers Faculty of Materials Science and Technology Slovak University of Technology, Sciendo, vol. 29(49), pages 24-35, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:proeco:v:282:y:2025:i:c:s0925527325000222. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpe .

    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.