Unlocking the Potential of Industry 4.0 for Supply Chain Flexibility and Agility: A Systematic Literature Review

This paper reports on a comprehensive literature review using the Systematic Literature Review approach to improve agility and flexibility at the Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) level. The review identified 51 papers that satisfied the research criteria. The literature on SCM-level I4.0, flexibility, and agility was classified into four major research lines, namely interrelationships between SCM strategies, I4.0 technologies’ role in enabling Supply Chain Flexibility and Agility, barriers to achieving supply chain-level flexibility, and drivers to improve supply chain-level flexibility. Content analysis of the papers from each group was also provided, along with gaps detected and avenues for future research. The findings can help organizations understand how to leverage I4.0 practices and technologies to improve their flexibility and agility capabilities in the SSCM context, as well as identify potential drivers and barriers to their achievement.