*6.5. Validation and Future Research Approach*

The validation was performed on a company in the automotive industry, and the results obtained are presented in the following process, Table 8. For the evaluated company, the five levels were completed. For each level, the value being less than 2, a series of recommendations were received which are presented in Table 8. The whole evaluation was based on the algorithm presented in Figure 7.


**Table 8.** The results obtained during the evaluation.

#### **7. Discussion**

Following the conducted research, various aspects related to the need for sustainable development and Industry 4.0 can be discussed. From the perspective of Industry 4.0, it can be seen that not all companies in Romania have accessed the national platform for Industry 4.0. Among the most important facilitators of Industry 4.0 are cost reduction, competitiveness, demand for partners, financial benefits, flexibility, reliable operation, and production interruptions. Barriers mainly refer to the lack of financial resources, competencies, the dimensioning of the supply chain, and the resistance of employees.

From the perspective of sustainable development, following the application of the Delphi method, a series of measures and indicators have been identified that contribute to the assessment of sustainable development and to the proposal of improvement measures.

The proposed model takes into account the imperatives of Industry 4.0 for manufacturing, the objectives and indicators of sustainable development. Five levels of evaluation are developed to systematically identify the measures required to improve the company's situation. Compared to existing methods, the present model reaches a final form during critical rounds of brainstorming analysis. These were performed during the Delphi method.

A five-level hierarchical model was developed starting from the interests of the shareholders to the reverse logistics. For each level, the impact of the indicators is calculated and, finally, the total value. A value of a level below score 2 requires a review of the company's behavior in those directions. Finally, the company's position toward sustainable development is obtained.

Following the test, a series of improvements of the initially proposed conceptual model were obtained. These improvements refer to improvements implemented following the empirical testing, the application of the 9Rs in any situation of the company, the evaluation of the requirements regarding the international standards, the improvement of the materials used, the recovery of the value at the end of the life cycle, the imposition of improvements regarding the Industry 4.0, and the involvement of shareholders in establishing financial indicators.

The proposed model advances the level of knowledge in the field by the fact that it has really identified the imperatives of industry 4.0 and develops a model in rounds of debates with experts in the field of manufacturing. This model is not a theoretical one but one approved by 40 experts chosen according to the top companies in Romania. The model is applicable to every industry because the evaluation is done by semi-quantitative assessments by competitiveness experts. The reference for each field is represented by the most important company from the top of the companies (made for the selection of the interviewed companies).

A set of the proposed frameworks [12–14] propose evaluations based on checklists that present certain limitations from the perspective of covering all organizational levels. These indicators were established on the basis of the specialized literature without a multi-round discussion with experts in the fields of activity.

The hierarchical model is valid and can be extended to other industries. The banking field is targeted because it is a field that has major implications in the economic and social dimensions. At the same time, this model will also identify the disruptive factors that may occur (we expect that the medical factors may affect the functioning of a system).

#### **8. Conclusions**

This research proposed a five-level framework for assessing manufacturing sustainability. The definition of these five levels offers an important stage in terms of production as well as sustainability in the manufacturing sector. The research focused on the two important directions for the competitiveness of the business environment: the sustainability and the digitization of the industry. Only experts from the manufacturing industry were involved in the research, and the experience of multiple previous researches was used. At the same time, the theoretical frameworks developed previously contributed to the foundation of the proposed and tested framework.

To characterize the industry, existing data series from accredited institutions were used. These influenced the selection of the manufacturing for the carried-out analysis. The use of market research and the involvement of experts in the research undertaken have contributed to the outline of the proposed framework. Empirical testing has led to the completion of the improved proposed framework and can be transposed into an online platform using databases and web programming facilities.

Future directions will also extend the model to other industries. Barriers encountered during the research refer to the factors that contribute to changing the conditions of the business environment. The research was carried out during 2019, and at the end of it, we started structuring and analyzing the data obtained. Since 2020, a number of factors have begun to appear that affect the economic conditions worldwide (the virus that has spread worldwide). These factors completely change the behavior of industries. This will be investigated in a future paper. The limitation of the study refers to the fact that the Romanian manufacturing characteristics are taken into account for research. In Romania, there is a need to develop a model, and that is why I focused only on these characteristics.

**Funding:** This work was partially supported by research grant GNaC2018-ARUT, no. 1359/01.02.2019, financed by Politehnica University of Timisoara.

**Acknowledgments:** The author wants to acknowledge the support of Politehnica University of Timisoara, Faculty of Management in Production and Transportation, and Management Department, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Faculty of Engineering for administrative and technical support, for the use of the infrastructure, and for allowing the author to create a new tool for research and didactic use. The author also acknowledges the support of industry in the region for helpful discussions and survey responses.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.

## **References**


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