Application of Toolbox Diagnosis of Sustainability 4.0 in Manufacturing Operations: Sustainability Integration in the Context of Industry 4.0

Abstract

Background: This paper describes the development of a toolbox for measuring the state of sustainability in industrial plants adopting Industry 4.0 (I4.0), using a diagnosis of Sustainability 4.0 (S4.0) (i.e., the integration of sustainable practices with I4.0 tools) as a business strategy, based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN).

Methods: The evaluation of sustainable integration with I4.0 practices was based on the development of a toolbox for S4.0, which consisted of two parts with 10 steps. In the first stage of the research, the toolbox was developed, and in the second stage, it was applied to obtain a diagnosis of sustainability integration in the context of I4.0.

Results: We report the development of a toolbox for sustainable manufacturing practices and the tools of I4.0 identified in the literature, which was validated based on expert judgment. The S4.0 toolbox was used to obtain a diagnosis of the integration of such practices in a sample of industrial plants located in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Conclusions: Our results show that the current level of adoption of S4.0 is 6.36% on average, in the manufacturing sector in Ciudad Juárez, México. This indicates the need to develop strategies for the adoption of sustainable practices.