Impeding challenges on industry 4.0 in circular economy: Palm oil industry in Malaysia

Abstract

This study contributes to identifying valid barriers and proposes a model to understand the challenges to Industry 4.0 in circular economy to obtain social, economic and environmental benefits in practice. Industry 4.0 and circular economy have a mutual effect in practice. Hence, this study aims to investigate how to impede the challenges of Industry 4.0 in circular economy in the context of the palm oil industry. Thirty significant challenge factors in Industry 4.0 in circular economy are collected, and the fuzzy Delphi Method is applied to address the qualitative information and translate the linguistic preferences. Interpretive structural modelling is to compose and interpretive the interrelationships in the impeding change on industry 4.0 in circular economy in practical model. The main findings are the identification of 18 essential challenges in Industry 4.0 in circular economy. The most important challenges are lack of automation system virtualization, unclear economic benefit of digital investment, lack of process design, unstable connectivity among firms and employment disruptions. This study contributes to unveiling what challenges Industry 4.0 in circular economy faces and how to address those challenges as a basis for operational decision-making. The limitations and future research directions are discussed.