Integrated Management Systems in Industry X.0: From Digital Integration to Intelligent and Human-Centric Management

Integrated management systems (IMSs) are currently experiencing a radical revolution triggered by digital technologies, sustainability issues, and human-centric management philosophies of Industry X.0. Even though there have been many advances in research about IMSs, our understanding of the evolution process and digital revolution of IMSs is still far from being comprehensive. In this research, a combination of bibliometric analysis and qualitative content analysis is used to explore the evolution of IMSs published in the scientific literature from 2015 to 2026. A set of 103 peer-reviewed publications, obtained through searches in the Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect databases, was analyzed following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines; of these, 59 full-text papers were selected for qualitative analyses. This bibliometric study discloses the ongoing advancement of IMSs, with major characteristics highlighting the increasing relevance of digital transformation, sustainability, artificial intelligence, and human-oriented management. According to the results of the bibliometric analysis, two theoretical contributions are made in this paper. First, a Digital Enabler Classification (DEC) taxonomy is proposed to classify IMS configurations according to their dominant digital enablers and associated management characteristics, comprising six analytical categories (DEC-0 to DEC-5). Second, a conceptual framework is proposed to provide a possible evolutionary interpretation of IMS transformation from standards-driven integration toward connected, intelligent, sustainable, and human-centric governance systems. The DEC taxonomy and its quantitative distribution across the six classes are derived directly from criterion-based coding of the 59 full-text articles; the evolutionary reading of the framework is a conceptual interpretation of this cross-sectional evidence rather than a longitudinally validated developmental sequence. Together, the contributions presented offer a structured view of the digital transformation process of IMSs and provide a foundation of theory and practice for the development of further research.