Special Issue "Building Sustainable Industry 4.0: Efficiency, Effectiveness, Evaluation, Development Frameworks"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Aldona Kluczek
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Production Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 86 Narbutta Street, 02-524 Warszawa, Poland
Interests: Industry 4.0; sustainable manufacturing; energy sustainability; industrial energy efficiency; technology assessment; improvement of manufacturing processes
Dr. Bartłomiej Gładysz
E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Faculty of Production Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 02-524 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: sustainability; smart manufacturing; technology management
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Jacek Szymczyk
E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Institute of Heat Engineering, Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 21/25 Nowowiejska Street, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: energy efficiency; energy storage; pumps and pumping systems; pumps as turbines; compressed air systems; heat and power generation
Dr. Patrycja Żegleń
E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Institute of Economics and Finance, University of Rzeszów, 2, Ćwiklińskiej Str., 35-601 Rzeszów, Poland
Interests: behavioral economy; sharing economy; public and private partnership; tourism industry; macroeconomics and microeconomics; risk in decisional process

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, the industrial sector has started to shift towards a novel paradigm which places emphasis on sustainable Industry 4.0. The Industry 4.0 concept results in many changes and challenges, not only in production processes but also in structures and companies’ various fields of activities (for example, in management, logistics, communication, etc.). In the range of technology, the concept concerns many technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data analysis, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and cooperative robots (cobots). The trend in shifts tends to also be strictly connected with economic models that enable Industry 4.0 technology being simplified and more accessible to various sectors. It is worth to underlining that social and economic aspects are very significant in Industry 4.0. However, environmental issues are also of great importance and are strongly impacted through Industry 4.0 initiatives. Thanks to the use of ICT, related technologies can be included in the concept of sustainability in Industry 4.0, helping companies to boost their sustainability performance by improving energy efficiency, waste management, pollution control, and value chain optimization in addition to workers’ safety, health, and general wellbeing, mainly in industrial sector. By increasing production efficiency, companies are led to full efficiency (sustainable Industry 4.0) by minimizing the negative environmental, economic, and social effects of the industrial sector. In this context, ICT solutions emerge as technologies which could support optimal resource allocation and optimize the level of utilization of resources,  inventory, and control and manage technologies or equipment, affecting sustainability.

Indeed, the transition toward sustainable Industry 4.0 refers to the integration of the manufacturing side, a variety of digital solutions with new business models, assessment approaches, and strategies resulting in reduced energy and material use, occupational health risks and hazards, and improved processes and, automatically, their outcomes. This transformation process should be built on a variety of technologies considering economic development in accordance with social equality and within ecological boundaries. Therefore, to build sustainable Industry 4.0 and meet sustainability goals, feasibility studies, decision support methods and policies, impact measurement proposals, and assessment approaches are simultaneously required to consider sustainability issues.

This Special Issue aims to collect theoretical and empirical studies that contribute to building sustainable Industry 4.0.

This Special Issue will include, but is not limited to, the following topics:

  • Measures and effects of sustainable Industry 4.0 from different perspectives;
  • New approaches to sustainable I4.0 assessment;
  • The role and importance of energy efficiency in the improvement of industrial processes and sustainability performance;
  • Efficiency, effectiveness, and efficacy measurements for sustainability and I4.0 initiatives;
  • The role of technological design in building sustainable Industry 4.0;
  • The role of policy and decision support tools in defining and achieving sustainable Industry 4.0;
  • Contributions of economic activities to sustainable Industry 4.0;
  • Business opportunities in Industry 4.0;
  • Technology management and assessment of I4.0 initiatives and sustainability programs;
  • Economic, environmental, and social impacts of I4.0 initiatives – case studies, frameworks, simulation models;
  • Other areas of research in which there exists a need to integrate sustainability issues into the existing definition of Industry 4.0.

Dr. Aldona Kluczek
Dr. Patrycja Żegleń
Dr. Bartłomiej Gładysz
Dr. Jacek Szymczyk
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Industry 4.0
  • design in Industry 4.0
  • smart manufacturing
  • sustainability
  • sustainability assessment
  • energy efficiency (generation, planning, storage)
  • evaluation approaches of technologies
  • sustainable performance measurement
  • Industry 4.0 management
  • business models
  • behavioral economy aspects

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

Article
The Impact of Industry 4.0 on Employees—Insights from Australia
Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3095; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063095 - 11 Mar 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 995
Abstract
Currently, Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is the most popular concept relating to changes in the functioning of industrial enterprises. Industry 4.0 has been discussed in the actual literature mainly from a technological perspective, overlooking social challenges regarding this fourth industrial revolution. The objective of [...] Read more.
Currently, Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is the most popular concept relating to changes in the functioning of industrial enterprises. Industry 4.0 has been discussed in the actual literature mainly from a technological perspective, overlooking social challenges regarding this fourth industrial revolution. The objective of this article is to diagnose the impact of I4.0 on employees. This aim will be achieved by (1) a literature review of existing research efforts, (2) conducting structured interviews, and (3) summarizing the current state of knowledge and providing a definition of further work. Scopus, Web of Science, and a set of specific keywords were used to select peer-reviewed articles showing evidence of the impact of I4.0 on employees/jobs in given countries or industries. After determining the current state of research in this area, it was decided to conduct structured interviews questionnaire in the country (Australia) and industry (horticulture), which had not been covered by the research in this topic so far. The main contribution of the article was the development and validation of a comprehensive research agenda on the impact of I4.0 on employees. The obtained results suggest that the impact of I4.0 on employees is significant, and the changes occur in many different categories related to human work. The impact of I4.0 was identified both at the macro (labor market) and micro (jobs) level. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

Review
A Critical Analysis of Job Shop Scheduling in Context of Industry 4.0
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7684; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147684 - 09 Jul 2021
Viewed by 528
Abstract
Scheduling plays a pivotal role in the competitiveness of a job shop facility. The traditional job shop scheduling problem (JSSP) is centralized or semi-distributed. With the advent of Industry 4.0, there has been a paradigm shift in the manufacturing industry from traditional scheduling [...] Read more.
Scheduling plays a pivotal role in the competitiveness of a job shop facility. The traditional job shop scheduling problem (JSSP) is centralized or semi-distributed. With the advent of Industry 4.0, there has been a paradigm shift in the manufacturing industry from traditional scheduling to smart distributed scheduling (SDS). The implementation of Industry 4.0 results in increased flexibility, high product quality, short lead times, and customized production. Smart/intelligent manufacturing is an integral part of Industry 4.0. The intelligent manufacturing approach converts renewable and nonrenewable resources into intelligent objects capable of sensing, working, and acting in a smart environment to achieve effective scheduling. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of centralized and decentralized/distributed JSSP techniques in the context of the Industry 4.0 environment. Firstly, centralized JSSP models and problem-solving methods along with their advantages and limitations are discussed. Secondly, an overview of associated techniques used in the Industry 4.0 environment is presented. The third phase of this paper discusses the transition from traditional job shop scheduling to decentralized JSSP with the aid of the latest research trends in this domain. Finally, this paper highlights futuristic approaches in the JSSP research and application in light of the robustness of JSSP and the current pandemic situation. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop