Exploring Organizational Sustainability of Industry 4.0 under the Triple Bottom Line: The Case of a Manufacturing Company

Alessio Braccini,Emanuele Margherita

doi:10.3390/su11010036

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in sustainability practices for organizations. Organizations act sustainably when they support the three dimensions \of the triple bottom line. Industry 4.0 (I40) promises to afford organizations to act sustainably. However, few empirical pieces of research targeted the impact of I40 on the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Our investigation considered the adoption of I40 in a manufacturing company which we analyzed as a single case study. We describe the level of I40 adoption and the process through which the unit has adopted them. Our case confirms that I40 applications support the triple bottom line through the improvement of productivity and product quality (economic), continuous energy consumption monitoring (environmental), and safer work environment and less intense work-load and job enrichment (social). We contribute to the literature by identifying two trajectories of interaction among the three dimensions of the triple bottom line in the shift from a traditional manufacturing company to a knowledge-intense organization. In the trajectories found, the three dimensions of sustainability influence and reinforce each other.

Highlights

Owing to the rising global population, climate change, pollution, and the scarcity of natural resources, sustainability has become a fundamental orientation for today’s organizations [1]
To evaluate the impact of Industry 4.0 (I40) adoption on sustainability, we showed in Figure 2 the I40 trajectory that aims at supporting the triple bottom line (TBL)
The exploration of how I40 application supports the three dimensions of the TBL was the primary motivation of our study

Summary

Introduction

Owing to the rising global population, climate change, pollution, and the scarcity of natural resources, sustainability has become a fundamental orientation for today’s organizations [1]. Organizations act sustainably when they simultaneously support all the dimensions of the triple bottom line (TBL)—ecological, social, and economic [2,3]. In I40 these technologies are used on the assembly line to form cyber-physical systems, where they generate real-time data about the actions performed on production processes and make these data available within the organization [22]. These technologies are used to create advanced manufacturing solutions of modular and interconnected systems that offer great flexibility and performance. Type and nature of the work performed in the company Experience (if any) on the production process before I40 adoption

Case Description

Economic Impact

Implications and Conclusions

Implications for Practitioners

Implications for Researchers