Achieving sustainability through the lean and resilient management of the supply chain

The impact of management practices and industry 4.0 technologies on supply chain sustainability: A systematic review

This systematic review addresses a significant gap in the existing literature by examining the intricate relationship between management practices and Industry 4.0 technologies in shaping supply chain sustainability. While prior studies have explored their individual impacts, this review synthesizes and categorizes findings to identify nuanced trends that contribute to supply chain efficiency, waste reduction, and environmental footprints. To achieve the goal of the study, a rigorous search strategy was employed to select peer-reviewed journal articles focusing on total quality management, just-in-time, vendor-managed inventory, lean, manufacturer-led decentralized systems, blockchain, the internet of things, and big data in the context of supply chain sustainability. The selected studies underwent a thorough evaluation to ensure quality and relevance. The findings highlight key insights: the adoption of management practices, particularly total quality management and just-in-time, significantly contributes to reducing waste, enhancing efficiency, and minimizing environmental footprints across supply chains. Simultaneously, the integration of industry 4.0 technologies like blockchain, the Internet of things, and big data empowers data-driven decision-making, transparency, and traceability, amplifying sustainability efforts. In conclusion, this review contributes a novel perspective by synthesizing, categorizing, and analyzing the impact of management practices and Industry 4.0 technologies on supply chain sustainability. Its findings offer valuable insights for addressing contemporary challenges and advancing sustainable practices amid dynamic global scenarios.

Maturity models in SSCM: a systematic review aimed at consolidating models and outlining possibilities for future research

Purpose

This research analyzes the current knowledge regarding the use of maturity models (MMs) in SSCM, aiming to identify the main characteristics, trends and research gaps on the subject. Facing the growing interest in carrying out studies directed at sustainability, to the detriment of more prescient environmental and social impacts and the need to consolidate the concepts present in the literature regarding the SSCM, an absence of similar studies in the current literature was found. The authors have selected articles to compose a database that allows users to analyze and classify publications on MMs in SSCM, being those subdivided into 7 categories: focus, methodology, analyzed sector, sustainable practices, dimensions of sustainable development, type of MM and model/framework validation method.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve this purpose, a literature systematization was conducted by searching publications using defined keywords in two databases and following a process of classification. The systematic process has five steps, from the selection of databases to the filtering of publications, review of information and analysis of the sample.

Findings

The topic under study is promising, with a few publications dealing with it, mainly in Brazil, and there is a trend to exploit more of the area in future research.

Originality/value

This research provides a detailed analysis of an emerging theme, divided into seven thematic categories. Results demonstrate that the topic is still underexplored, indicating an important research gap to be filled.

Mediating effect of industry 4.0 technologies on the supply chain management practices and supply chain performance

The ever-growing concern of sustainability and survivability attracts academicians and practitioners to develop strategies and supply chain capabilities that cater to the challenges and helps in achieving the sustainability development goals. There is a need to develop a holistic model that facilitates understanding the relationships among supply chain practices, industry 4.0 technologies, and supply chain performance measures. Thus, this study examines the mediating effect of industry 4.0 technologies on supply chain management practices and supply chain performance measures. A survey-based data was collected from manufacturing organizations across India, and 361 complete responses were obtained. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized for data analysis. This study has multiple contributions. First, the results indicate that the supply chain management practices influence the industry 4.0 technologies adoption. Second, the results also revealed that the industry 4.0 technologies significantly positively affect supply chain performance measures. Finally, industry 4.0 technologies mediated the relations between supply chain management practices and supply chain performance measures. Furthermore, the findings offer important insights into understanding the underlying mechanisms in successfully adopting and effectively using industry 4.0 technologies. The implications for theory and practices are also discussed.

Analysing the interactions of sustainability practices and financial performance on business-to-business buying behaviour in Indian manufacturing industry: a graph-theoretic approach

Purpose

This study aims to develop a framework for the action hierarchy of sustainability practices and financial performance and their optimal combination for supplier evaluation and selection in business-to-business (B2B) for the Indian manufacturing industry.

Design/methodology/approach

Through the extensive literature review followed by comprehensive interviews conducted using the Delphi methodology with professionals, this study attempts to represent the interactions of the sustainability practices and financial performance factors on B2B buying behaviour using a graph-theoretic approach.

Findings

The contribution of environmental, social, economic and financial performance to B2B buying behaviour is obtained quantitatively in the context of the Indian manufacturing industry.

Research limitations/implications

This study considers inputs from the Indian manufacturing industry, which may vary significantly based on the type of industry and geographical locations.

Practical implications

This study provides a direction to prioritize their supplier evaluation and selection criteria for sustainability practices and financial performance with quantifiable rationale.

Originality/value

The study seeks to encourage manufacturing industries to plan their actions by quantifying the intangibles through a systematic approach.

Key supply chain strategies for the post-COVID-19 era: implications for resilience and sustainability

Purpose

The impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak continue to devastate supply chain operations. To attain a competitive advantage in the post-COVID-19 era, decision-makers should explore key supply chain strategies to move forward and ready their policies to be implemented when the crisis sufficiently subsides. This is a significant and practical decision-making issue for any supply chain; hence, the purpose of this study is to explore and analyse key supply chain strategies to ensure robustness and resilience in the post-COVID-19 era.

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducted an expert survey targeting practitioners and academics to explore key supply chain strategies as means of moving forward in the post-COVID-19 era. Further, the key strategies were quantitatively analysed by applying the best-worst method (BWM) to determine their priority importance in the context of the manufacturing sector.

Findings

The results revealed that supply chain resilience and sustainability practices could play a dominant role in this period. The findings of the study can assist supply chain decision-makers in their formulations of key strategies.

Originality/value

This is the first study to investigate key supply chain strategies for the post-COVID-19 era. This study will help practitioners paying attention to resilience and sustainability practices for managing the impacts of future large-scale disruptions.

Study on the Relations of Supply Chain Digitization, Flexibility and Sustainable Development—A Moderated Multiple Mediation Model

In the face of an external environment featuring a high level of risk, multiple changes, and high uncertainty, the supply chain’s emergency replenishment, collaborative management, regulation of organic commodity, and low-cost rapid response will promote its’ sustainable growth and development, which is necessary for today’s economic development. The digitization and flexibility of the supply chain are of great value in obtaining the sustainable development of the supply chain. When dealing with an uncertain environment and market risk, current supply chain flexibility not only functions through its internal organizational flexibility, but also through collaborative creation and an extended supply chain network which will proactively form a replenishment supply sub-chain driven by the need for change responsiveness. This article constructs an associated model consisting of digitization, supply chain flexibility, and sustainability using an empirical analysis method to explore the implicit correlation of these factors. The analysis results of the mediating effect model show that both digitization and flexibility have significant positive effects on the sustainable development of the supply chain. Collaborative knowledge creation and supply chain flexibility play multiple mediating roles while market uncertainty positively moderates the impact of supply chain flexibility on supply chain sustainable development.

Sustainability in the Aerospace, Naval, and Automotive Supply Chain 4.0: Descriptive Review

The search for sustainability in the Supply Chain (SC) is one of the tasks that most concerns business leaders in all manufacturing sectors because of the importance that the Supply Chain has as a transversal tool and due to the leading role that it has been playing lately. Of all the manufacturing sectors, this study focuses on the aerospace, shipbuilding, and automotive sectors identified as transport. The present study carries out a descriptive review of existing publications in these three sectors in relation to the sustainability of the Supply Chain in its 4.0 adaptation as an update in matters that are in constant evolution. Among the results obtained, Lean practices are common to the three sectors, as well as different technologies focused on sustainability. Furthermore, the results show that the automotive sector is the one that makes the greatest contribution in this sense through collaborative programs that can be very useful to the other two sectors, thus benefiting from the consequent applicable advantages. Meanwhile, the Aerospace and Shipbuilding sectors do not seem to be working on promoting a sustainable culture in the management of the Supply Chain or on including training programs for their personnel in matters related to Industry 4.0.

A Conceptual Framework to Manage Resilience and Increase Sustainability in the Supply Chain

The challenges of global economies foster supply chains to have to increase their processes of collaboration and dependence between their nodes, generating an increase in the level of vulnerability to possible impacts and interruptions in their operations that may affect their sustainability. This has developed an emerging area of interest in supply chain management, considering resilience management as a strategic capability of companies, and causing an increase in this area of research. Additionally, supply chains should deal with the three dimensions of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social dimensions) by incorporating the three types of objectives in their strategy. Thus, there is a need to integrate both resilience and sustainability in supply chain management to increase competitiveness. In this paper, a systematic literature review is undertaken to analyze resilience management and its connection to increase supply chain sustainability. In the review, 232 articles published from 2000 to February 2020 in peer-reviewed journals in the Scopus and ScienceDirect databases are analyzed, classified, and synthesized. With the results, this paper develops a conceptual framework that integrates the fundamental elements for analyzing, measuring, and managing resilience to increase sustainability in the supply chain. Finally, conclusions, limitations, and future research lines are exposed.

Resource and Information Access for SME Sustainability in the Era of IR 4.0: The Mediating and Moderating Roles of Innovation Capability and Management Commitment

In the era of industrial revelation 4.0 (IR 4.0), sustainability has been a serious challenge of contemporary small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Using Natural Resource-Based-View (NRBV), the current paper examines the moderated mediation model of the role of information access in the sustainability of SMEs, through the mediating role of access to resource and innovation capability in the relationship between information access and sustainability, and the moderating role of management commitment in the relationship between innovation capability and SME sustainability. This paper gathered data from 222 SMEs in Pakistan. The study used a purposive sampling technique to distribute the survey questionnaire. Smart-PLS software was used to analyze the data. The study finding indicates that access to information affects both sustainability and innovation capability. Moreover, access to resources affects innovation capability, though it did not affect SME sustainability. Furthermore, innovation capability mediates the relationship between access to resources, access to information, and SME sustainability. Additionally, management commitment moderates the relationship between access to information and innovation capability; however, it does not moderate the relationship between access to resources and innovation capability. Practical, theoretical, and methodological implications are discussed in the study.