Sustainability of Industry 4.0/Smart Manufacturing

Although sustainability is still considered the cornerstone and backbone of manufacturing industries, the sustainability of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) has become a buzzword in manufacturing environments, particularly after adopting and implementing emerging manufacturing technologies (EMT). The EMT is characterized by advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) and digital technologies (ADT). Sustainability for Industry 4.0 (S_I4.0) in manufacturing industries, in common, is separated into three primary layers. These layers are represented by the adoption of emerging technologies as the first layer, called the core layer, which depends on adopting advanced manufacturing and digital technologies. The second layer is the chosen layer, which is based on the selection of feasible emerging technologies for Industry 4.0. The third layer, which is known as the given layer, is the implementation and site readiness of Industry 4.0. All these layers constitute S_I4.0 manufacturing industries. The major goal of this paper is to discover the S_I4.0 for these layers. Although these layers coincide or overlap at one point, there's an architectural link between them. A novel assessment for measuring the sustainability index of each layer individually and aggregated later will be analyzed and presented.