Evaluating Industry 4.0 technology and sustainable development goals – a social perspective

Abstract

Organisations are having difficulty in determining and integrating Industry 4.0 technologies (I4.0T) to improve social dimensions of sustainable performance. We address this issue by showing how to identify the impact degree and path of I4.0T using the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs). First, we identify the SDGs associated with I4.0 and establish an evaluation framework. Second, we introduce an evaluation method that integrates hesitant fuzzy sets, rough sets, decision-making, trial evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and interpretative structural modelling methods to identify the impact degree and path of I4.0T on SDGs. Third, we confirm the effectiveness of our framework and method using secondary case data from World Economic Forum reports. The case results show that I4.0T have varying direct and indirect influences on SDGs. Policy makers should consider that ‘Big Data and Analytics’ and ‘Cloud Computing’ are central I4.0T that link other technologies and SDGs. The prioritisation of I4.0T can lead to contributions to addressing ‘Responsible consumption and production’ and indirectly improve SDGs. The findings set an initial stage to help sequence investment in various technologies depending on SDGs. We identify sequential paths that can aid in planning for and investing in adopting I4.0T to better achieve SDGs.

KEYWORDS:

• Industry 4.0
• sustainable development goals
• hesitant fuzzy sets
• DEMATEL
• technology adoption

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 72072021], [grant number 71772032]. This study was partially supported by the TEC-LOGd Chaire sponsored by the Hauts-de-France region and the Cambrai Agglomeration Community. This research was also supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities-Humanities and Social Sciences Prosperity Development Plan Cultivation Project ZYGX2020FTJH010, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities-Outstanding Achievement Publishing Plan of Humanities and Social Sciences ZYGX2021FRJH005, and Sichuan Science and Technology Plan Project 2021JDR0284.

Notes on contributors

Chunguang Bai

Chunguang Bai is currently a Professor in the School of Management and Economics, at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. She earned her Ph. D. in Management Science from the Dalian University of Technology. Her research interests include sustainable supply chain management, smart technology and the carbon neutralisation. She has dozens of publications with over 50 papers in journals such as Production and Operations Management, Decision Science, OMEGA, the European Journal of Operational Research. She has over 4000 citations based on Google Scholar. She has been recognised as one of the most cited researchers in China across disciplines And World's Top 2% Scientists 2020 (by Stanford University). She served as a visiting scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Temple University in the U. S., and at Concordia University in Canada. Her research has been funded by a number of National Science Foundation of China grants.

Hua Zhou

Hua Zhou is currently a postgraduate student in the School of Management and Economics, at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. His research interests include sustainability management and the smart technology.

Joseph Sarkis

Joseph Sarkis is a Professor in the Business School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His research and teaching are in the areas of operations, supply chain, technology and sustainability management. He has been a highly cited scholar for many years with over 500 publications. He is also an international scholar at the Hanken School of Economics. He does his best to live sustainably.