Building Sustainable Industry 4.0: Efficiency, Effectiveness, Evaluation, Development Frameworks

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, the industrial sector has started to shift towards a novel paradigm which places emphasis on sustainable Industry 4.0. The Industry 4.0 concept results in many changes and challenges, not only in production processes but also in structures and companies’ various fields of activities (for example, in management, logistics, communication, etc.). In the range of technology, the concept concerns many technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data analysis, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and cooperative robots (cobots). The trend in shifts tends to also be strictly connected with economic models that enable Industry 4.0 technology being simplified and more accessible to various sectors. It is worth to underlining that social and economic aspects are very significant in Industry 4.0. However, environmental issues are also of great importance and are strongly impacted through Industry 4.0 initiatives. Thanks to the use of ICT, related technologies can be included in the concept of sustainability in Industry 4.0, helping companies to boost their sustainability performance by improving energy efficiency, waste management, pollution control, and value chain optimization in addition to workers’ safety, health, and general wellbeing, mainly in industrial sector. By increasing production efficiency, companies are led to full efficiency (sustainable Industry 4.0) by minimizing the negative environmental, economic, and social effects of the industrial sector. In this context, ICT solutions emerge as technologies which could support optimal resource allocation and optimize the level of utilization of resources,  inventory, and control and manage technologies or equipment, affecting sustainability.

Indeed, the transition toward sustainable Industry 4.0 refers to the integration of the manufacturing side, a variety of digital solutions with new business models, assessment approaches, and strategies resulting in reduced energy and material use, occupational health risks and hazards, and improved processes and, automatically, their outcomes. This transformation process should be built on a variety of technologies considering economic development in accordance with social equality and within ecological boundaries. Therefore, to build sustainable Industry 4.0 and meet sustainability goals, feasibility studies, decision support methods and policies, impact measurement proposals, and assessment approaches are simultaneously required to consider sustainability issues.

This Special Issue aims to collect theoretical and empirical studies that contribute to building sustainable Industry 4.0.

This Special Issue will include, but is not limited to, the following topics:

• Measures and effects of sustainable Industry 4.0 from different perspectives;
• New approaches to sustainable I4.0 assessment;
• The role and importance of energy efficiency in the improvement of industrial processes and sustainability performance;
• Efficiency, effectiveness, and efficacy measurements for sustainability and I4.0 initiatives;
• The role of technological design in building sustainable Industry 4.0;
• The role of policy and decision support tools in defining and achieving sustainable Industry 4.0;
• Contributions of economic activities to sustainable Industry 4.0;
• Business opportunities in Industry 4.0;
• Technology management and assessment of I4.0 initiatives and sustainability programs;
• Economic, environmental, and social impacts of I4.0 initiatives – case studies, frameworks, simulation models;
• Other areas of research in which there exists a need to integrate sustainability issues into the existing definition of Industry 4.0.

Dr. Aldona Kluczek
Dr. Patrycja Żegleń
Dr. Bartłomiej Gładysz
Dr. Jacek Szymczyk
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Industry 4.0
• design in Industry 4.0
• smart manufacturing
• sustainability
• sustainability assessment
• energy efficiency (generation, planning, storage)
• evaluation approaches of technologies
• sustainable performance measurement
• Industry 4.0 management
• business models
• behavioral economy aspects