Resilience and cleaner production in industry 4.0: Role of supply chain mapping and visibility

Abstract

Industry 4.0 makes the business processes more autonomous, automated, and intelligent. Supply chain mapping can be a steppingstone to adopt the developments of Industry 4.0. Despite its profound significance in Industry 4.0 driven supply chain management, it has been hardly discussed in the research literature. Against this backdrop, the objective of this study is to test the impact of supply chain mapping on a firm’s supply chain visibility and resilience. Data were collected from 154 Electrical & Electronics sector Malaysian firms through a close-ended questionnaire. The study employed structural equation modeling to analyze the hypothesized relationships. A significant momentous effect of supply chain mapping was found on the supply chain visibility and supply chain resilience. Further, the study also found a significant mediating role of supply chain visibility in the association between SC mapping and supply chain resilience. The findings of the study strongly suggest firms adopt a supply chain mapping strategy to improve supply chain visibility and supply chain resilience. Findings also suggest maintaining closer ties with key suppliers in order to increase SC visibility.