Driving Sustainable Manufacturing Excellence Through Integrated Lean and Industry 4.0 Strategies in a Dynamic Environment

ABSTRACT The examination of the challenges of integrated lean principles and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) on organizational performance is of growing interest. The proposed research integrates lean and I4.0 technologies to develop a combined decision‐making system in an environment of dynamic manufacturing. The sampling data are collected from a diverse group of experts in different companies to improve the robustness of the model. Eight enablers are identified and grouped for evaluation using multi‐criteria decision‐making and structural analysis methods. Outcomes indicate, among volatile conditions, real‐time value stream analytics emerges as the critical factor in most, receiving the highest ranking, with a global weight of 0.195, while human‐in‐the‐loop visual management ranks lowest, with a global weight of 0.074. Overall, the results indicate that real‐time analytics and sustainability‐focused dashboards are the most valuable enablers, although human‐driven decision aids, while ranked lower, still provide valuable support. The development of the Electric Vehicles (EVs) industry in the state of Karnataka, India, is assumed to be the case study industry sector. The profitability of EV manufacturing is analyzed based on the perspectives of five expert groups across four key decision‐making dimensions. The analysis shows that cost is the dominant factor and have 32.3% contribution to profitability, while it contributes the least at 16.1%. The greatest contribution, $125.16 million, arises from cost quantification, highlighting the importance of management and measurement over profit.