Energy sustainability and industry 4.0

Abstract

The world is witnessing the fourth industrial revolution, as known as Industry 4.0, which integrates advanced manufacturing and operations techniques with the most recent digital and information technologies to create dynamic, interconnected, and smart manufacturing ecosystems. The underlying components of Industry 4.0 such as smart factories and technology trends also need an ever-increasing powering, and energy sustainability has strong ties to Industry 4.0. The Industry 4.0 offer numerous opportunities for energy sustainability, and the present research applies the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) not only to model the Industry 4.0 functions for energy efficiency but also sustainability. With the mentioned methodology, the research performs a systematic review of the literature to first identify the energy efficiency sustainability functions of Industry 4.0. Besides, the research further determined the opinion of a group of experts to map and analysed the interrelationships among the sustainability functions identified. The results in this research indicates that sophisticated precedence relationships exist amongst numerous energy sustainability functions of Industry 4.0. In particular, ‘Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée àun Classement’ (MICMAC) analysis indicates that the digital transformation of energy sector (Energy 4.0) itself, smart grids, and process optimization are the more immediate energy sustainability impacts of Industry 4.0. This research enable Industry 4.0 players including industrialists, academicians, consumers, and even governments to understand better the opportunities that Industry 4.0 may offer for energy sustainability.