Industry 4.0 and Indian Manufacturing Companies: Barriers towards sustainability

Abstract

Industry 4.0 refers to the part of key enabling technologies which includes cyber-physical systems, the internet of things, artificial intelligence big data analytics, and digital twins. Major driving forces behind automated and digital manufacturing settings include these technologies(Castelo-Branco, 2019). Emphasizing sustainability as the cornerstone of business strategy and calling for smart manufacturing, energy-efficient construction, and low-impact industrialization led to the foundation of the United Nations (UN) Sustainability 2030 agenda. Industry 4.0 technology aids in making company processes more sustainable. Few research fields have reported on this technology as it is aimed at improving business sustainability through the innovation of manufacturing processes in different industries (Bag, 2018). These applications are used in a variety of cutting-edge technology to modernize assembly lines. The Internet of Things helps machines to create, process, and transmit data in real-time to both people and other machines, robots can operate independently or in conjunction with humans, manipulate task like grabbing and spinning through its programming and design. On one hand big data and analytics deals with enormous and unstructured data using business intelligence, machine learning and analytics software using cloud computing techniques. Material can be added to solid blocks rather than mechanically removed to create high quality physical items through additive manufacturing (Godina,2020). These technologies are utilized in Industry 4.0 to create cyber physical system that are applied on the production line (Bai, 2020). It supports several sustainability related subfields; advanced manufacturing solutions may be built around the networked systems. It reduces the time to market, improves manufacturing flexibility and make better use of resources (Beier, 2020).