Industry 4.0 digital transformation and opportunities for supply chain resilience: a comprehensive review and a strategic roadmap

Abstract

Despite interest in opportunities that Industry 4.0 offers for Supply Chain Resilience (SCR), little is known about the underlying mechanisms for such contributions. The study develops a roadmap that explains how supply chains can capitalize on Industry 4.0 SCR functions. The study conducted a content-centric literature review and identified 16 functions through which Industry 4.0 enhances SCR. Results reveal that the Industry 4.0 SCR functions identified are highly interrelated, and supply chain members should align their digitalization strategies with the sequence in which Industry 4.0 delivers these functions. Industry 4.0 contribution to SCR first involves delivering data-centric functions such as supply chain automation, information and communication quality, process monitoring, and visibility. Industry 4.0 further allows supply chain partners to collaborate better on improving supply chain mapping, complexity management, and innovation capabilities. Through these functions and by increasing transparency, flexibility, and agility of supply chain operations, Industry 4.0 delivers more dependent but consequential resilience functions such as supply chain responsiveness, adaptive capability, and continuity management. The roadmap further explains how each pair of Industry 4.0 SCR functions mutually interact while contributing to the overall resilience of the supply chain. The study discusses possible implications and outlines important avenues for future research.