Industry 4.0 Technologies for Sustainable Manufacturing and Supply Chain Operations

Dear Colleagues,

The interest of companies in the sustainability performance of their operations and products, as well as of their suppliers and customers, has grown strongly in recent years. At the same time, the concept of Industry 4.0 has matured, and its enabling technologies are widely used, allowing companies and supply chains to be more smart, efficient, and productive. In this context, one of the most interesting challenges for researchers and managers is the definition of ways to direct technological innovation towards the improvement of sustainability performance, both from an economic, environmental, and social point of view.

The objective of this Special Issue is to promote research concerning the linkage between Industry 4.0 technologies and the sustainability of manufacturing and supply chain operations.

This Special Issue invites original papers dealing with, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Impacts of Industry 4.0-enabling technologies on sustainability;
• Sustainability impacts of new technologies at an early technology readiness level;
• Life cycle sustainability approaches of technological improvements in products and processes;
• Contribution of technologies to the Sustainable Development Goals;
• Role of Industry 4.0 technologies on the definition and measurement of sustainability performance indicators;
• Sustainability assessment, management, and performance of smart production and smart logistics;
• Sustainability performance benchmarking.

The papers should adopt one or more of the following (methodological, conceptual, empirical) approaches:

• development of new metrics and/or methods;
• consolidation or validation of existing metrics and/or methods;
• analysis of case studies;
• proposal of best practices;
• analysis and development of supporting IT tools;
• systematic literature reviews.

Other topics and approaches relevant to this Special Issue but not included in the list above will also be considered.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Filippo Marciano
Dr. Giuseppe Tomasoni
Dr. Paola Cocca
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Industry 4.0
• I4.0 technologies
• sustainability
• sustainability performance
• smart manufacturing
• smart supply chain
• sustainable manufacturing
• sustainable supply chain