Identifying harmony between industrial engineering and environmental sustainability in South Africa

Industrial engineering (IE) has become globally recognised for transforming operational improvements across organisations. Yet, its relationship with environmental sustainability (ES) is an issue with growing fixation and sporadic literature on the topic. Despite this, there remains limited consensus on its relationship. South Africa is among the many developing countries challenged with achieving ES, and IE knowledge may be the resolution. This research strives to uncover the relationship between IE and ES for a Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA), an aspect of literature faintly explored within transdisciplinary contexts. A qualitative research methodology was adopted using an interpretive approach incorporating interviews. The results from 24 interviews were analysed using thematic analysis, revealing various knowledge components segmented into strategies, theories, methods and practices. The results outline knowledge components that complement both IE and ES knowledge domains. These suggest ways to establish synergy which produces operational and environmental gains for organisations universally by incorporating notions such as Circular Economy, Systems Thinking, Sustainable Transitions, Lean, Project Management, Simulation modelling, Industry 5.0, ESG reporting, and Value Stream Mapping. This research demonstrates synergy points between Industrial Engineering and Environmental Sustainability that can create transdisciplinary knowledge for a sustainable competitive advantage. Although derived from the population interviewed, the results boast a promising relationship between these two knowledge domains and welcome further research to amalgamate these paradigms within transdisciplinary knowledge contexts for societal challenges.