Benchmarking the integration of Industry 4.0 technologies across the supply chains: insights from the metal manufacturing industry

Purpose Integrating the technologies well among each entity, process and other supply chain components has become essential for effective performance. Hence, this research attempts to explore the possible hurdles in improper integration of technologies concerning vivid perspectives across the supply chains of the metal manufacturing industry to benchmark its performance. Design/methodology/approach The theoretical research framework has been developed by considering the balanced scorecard and dynamic capability view theory to uncover the associated perspectives and related hurdles. The triangulated research process has been adopted by performing two case studies in the steel and aluminium manufacturing industry, followed by a generalized survey in the metal manufacturing industry to test and validate the findings of the case studies. The expert input-based case studies were performed utilizing the grey DEMATEL-ANP approach, while the generalized study was conducted using a non-parametric Wilcoxon signed rank test. Findings Causal perspective hurdles in two case studies are value-based perspective, industry regulation-related perspective and customer-related perspective, which develop the hurdles associated with the economy and technology-related perspectives. Further, lack of federal initiatives and assistance, lack of ideologies and documentation and lack of cyber feasibilities are the top three crucial hurdles towards technology integration in the supply chains of the metal manufacturing industry. Originality/value This research addresses an unexplored area of integration hurdles in adopting Industry 4.0 technologies concerning vivid perspectives involved in supply chain performance. Further, this research work uniquely proposes the benchmarking framework for industries to assess their alignment and level of technology integration in their supply chains.