Industry 4.0 and Supply Chain Management: Applications, Roles, and Strategic Implication

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Eleanor Hawking
Institute for Environmental Science, University of Bristol, UK
Abstract
The fourth industrial revolution, widely referred to as Industry 4.0, has fundamentally altered the architecture and operational dynamics of global supply chains. This paper examines the applications and roles of Industry 4.0 technologies—including the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), cyber-physical systems (CPS), big data analytics, cloud computing, and digital twins—within contemporary supply chain management (SCM). Drawing on a structured review of recent peer-reviewed literature and a synthesised thematic analysis of secondary data, this study identifies four overarching domains in which Industry 4.0 exerts the greatest influence: supply chain performance, digital integration, sustainability, and resilience. The results of the thematic synthesis reveal that technology adoption tends to follow a maturity-driven pathway and that multi-technology integration consistently yields superior outcomes compared to single-technology deployments. Furthermore, the study highlights persistent barriers to adoption, including high implementation costs, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and skill deficiencies. The paper concludes by proposing a conceptual framework that maps technology clusters to strategic supply chain objectives, offering both theoretical contributions and actionable insights for practitioners navigating digital transformation.
Keywords
Industry 4.0
Supply chain management
Digital transformation
Artificial intelligence
Sustainability
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Engineering Intelligence Journal
Volume 1, Issue 1
Summer 2026