Integrating Industry 4.0 and Sustainability Toward Attaining Smart Manufacturing Systems

Making smart and sustainable manufacturing operations is a top priority for industries in the era of digitization. Numerous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of attaining sustainability goals by incorporating Industry 4.0 technologies. There is still a scarcity of research in the existing literature on deploying smart and sustainable systems within a smart manufacturing context. This study aims to develop an implementation framework for smart sustainable systems and analyze its impact on business practices. It presents a multiple case study analysis of manufacturing organizations based on secondary data collection. The outcomes of these studies assist in developing a framework for a smart sustainable system structured into five layers. These include identification of the area, establishing a correlation, system integration, development of sustainability 4.0, and analyzing the performance based on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach. The study’s results indicate that implementation of smart sustainable systems leads to enhanced organizational performance, which is particularly seen in the areas of sustainable purchasing, sustainable manufacturing, sustainable logistics, and sustainable marketing. Implementation of smart sustainable operations contributes to achieving economic sustainability 4.0, social sustainability 4.0, and environmental sustainability 4.0. The findings of this research will offer guidance to the academic and business communities in their pursuit of sustainability 4.0.