A Framework to Overcome Supply Chain 4.0 Challenges for Sustainability: Application of BWM and DEMATEL Approaches Available to Purchase

Recently, sustainability has emerged as a critical issue leading to substantial pressures on organizations. The integration of advanced technologies in the supply chain is supposed to enhance economic, environmental and social performance. However, several challenges are hindering the achievement of global sustainability. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the challenges of supply chain 4.0 for sustainability and propose alternative solutions. A total of 14 challenges are identified and organized into clusters through extensive literature review and Delphi approach. With experts’ help, Best–Worst Method is used to provide the global and the local ranking of these challenges. Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method is employed to analyze the interactions between the most 10 relevant barriers. Next, a framework of alternative solutions is proposed to overcome these challenges. Sensitivity analysis is performed to validate the robustness of the proposed framework. This study provides new insights regarding the sustainability of supply chain 4.0 and the important solutions to overcome the associated challenges. The outcomes can assist decisions-makers to improve sustainability through adopting advanced technologies. Future research can integrate the benefits of industry 5.0 to the proposed framework.