What Strengthens Social Sustainability in Logistics in the Age of Industry 4.0? Analysis and Modelling of the Enablers

Abstract

Managing the logistics sector from a sustainability perspective represents an important challenge, which is even more difficult to practice under Industry 4.0 technologies regime. This study investigates the question of what enablers can be there that can be useful for social sustainability in the age of Industry 4.0. In this study, first, important social sustainability factors were assimilated from literature and secondary data derived from industry reports. In the second step, these factors were classified into five categories related to social sustainability enablers (SSEs) using principal component analysis (PCA). Finally, to support the decision makers, the critical SSEs are synthesized using the Fuzzy DEMATEL approach to find the importance of these factors concerning sustainability in logistics operations. The result shows that the use of green technologies related to Industry 4.0 is the most important aspect that derives social sustainability in logistics. The next important critical factor found was promoting social sustainability, the economic aspect, and the safety and well-being of people involved in logistics operations. The critical factor will further help in achieving human-centric automation, fair & inclusive logistics in the era of Industry 4.0.