How Industry 4.0 drives sustainability in supply chains: Analysis of the automotive industry

The ecological crisis faced by our society and the resulting concerns, such as global warming, have led to the emergence of the concept of sustainability. To overcome these concerns, we must urgently reconsider our behavior and the way we use our resources. At the same time, the new digital technologies that are being implemented in industry, leading to Industry 4.0, are reshaping the whole activity of companies, especially in their supply chain. The opportunities of these new technologies on the industrial activity are widely studied but the consideration of these applications to promote sustainability is very recent. This paper gathers the new studies that focus on the sustainable potential of Industry 4.0 within supply chains. The research paper focuses on the automotive industry, arguably considered as the largest and most dominant manufacturing sector in the world. Our analysis shows that new Industry 4.0 technologies can support the sustainability of automotive supply chains from an economic, social, and environmental perspective. By implementing it in their operations and by altering their internal processes to accommodate it, automotive companies can optimize resource and energy consumption, make significant cost savings, and improve traceability and transparency throughout the value chain. This paper also highlights the diverse risks and challenges associated with Industry 4.0 such as cybercrime, energy consumption, unemployment risk, expanded requirements for new skills, and investment necessities. We suggest solutions and leverage points to assist companies in overcoming these issues.