Industry 4.0 and supply chain performance: A systematic literature review of the benefits, challenges, and critical success factors of 11 core technologies

TLDR

Industry 4.0 literature is rapidly expanding yet fragmented, and existing systematic reviews have not simultaneously covered multiple core technologies, their supply‑chain implications, and the critical success factors that influence them. This study conducts a comprehensive systematic literature review of 221 articles on 11 core Industry 4.0 technologies to synthesize their benefits, challenges, and critical success factors for supply‑chain performance and to propose future research directions. The review analyzes articles published between 2005 and 2021, presenting each technology’s individual benefits, challenges, and critical success factors rather than aggregating them. The authors develop a framework linking each technology to supply‑chain performance and identify promising avenues for future research, including gaps in challenges, critical success factors, underexplored technologies, and technology interactions. No additional metadata provided.

Abstract

The exponentially growing literature on Industry 4.0 technologies and their implications for supply chains exhibits valuable insights alongside considerable fragmentation. While prior systematic literature reviews (SLRs) started to consolidate the literature, an SLR that simultaneously (a) covers several core technologies of the Industry 4.0, (b) synthesizes their positive and negative implications for supply chain performance in a broad sense, and (c) accounts for the critical success factors that foster or impede these implications is still missing. We contribute to establishing a cumulative body of knowledge by conducting such an SLR. We synthesize 221 articles published on 11 Industry 4.0 technologies between 2005 and 2021. Rather than aggregate implications, our SLR presents the benefits, challenges, and critical success factors of each core technology vis-à-vis supply chain performance individually. We integrate our findings into a framework of Industry 4.0 supply chain performance and derive promising avenues for future research. Specifically, we call for more research on (a) the challenges and critical success factors of Industry 4.0 technologies; (b) hitherto underexplored core technologies of the Industry 4.0; (c) the interaction of multiple core technologies (are they complements or substitutes? ); as well as for (d) further consolidation and interdisciplinary dissemination efforts.