Influence of Industry 4.0 on the production and service sectors in Pakistan: Evidence from textile and logistics industries

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the role of Industry 4.0 in the production and service sector in Pakistan. It therefore considers five Industry 4.0 factors, namely big data, smart factory, cyber physical systems (CPS), Internet of things (IoT), and interoperability. In order to analyze the role of Industry 4.0, the textile industry is taken as a production industry, while the logistics industry is considered as a service industry. Both are facing various challenges in production and services causing below standard overall performance. To address this issue, a quantitative research approach with cross-sectional research design was selected. First hand data was collected through a survey questionnaire from a total of 224 employees of textile and logistics companies. Smart partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was preferred to analyze the collected data. Findings of the study revealed that Industry 4.0 has a key role in promoting the production and services sector in Pakistan, as it has a significant impact on the overall performance of the considered sectors. This research is one of the pioneer studies that examines the role of Industry 4.0 on the textile and logistics industry of Pakistan. Thus, this research also contributes in a practical dimension by explaining the implementation of Industry 4.0 for improving the performance of the textile and logistics industries.