Assessing the Interplay Between Circular Economy, Industry 4.0, and Lean Production: A Bibliometric Review.

The combination of the industrial paradigms of Circular Economy (CE), Industry 4.0 (I40), and Lean Production (LP) has been debated by academics and practitioners in the last years, demonstrating that I40 technologies and LP enable CE, and that I40 and LP mutually support each other. The analyses conclude that several economic and environmental benefits can be achieved from these synergies. However, given most of the studies in literature focused on the dual combination between these paradigms, there is a need for understanding how all three are related to each other simultaneously. Accordingly, the proposed research defines a model that shows how the circular transition of manufacturing companies can be enhanced through the exploitation of LP practices and the key enabling technologies of I40. To achieve this result, the proposed research conducts a bibliometric review of the literature extracted from Scopus, exploiting a systematic literature network analysis methodology to detect and then analyze clusters of themes. The study observed that employing LP practices and I40 technologies support manufacturing companies towards a more effective circular transition and proposes future research avenues to be addressed by future studies at the intersection between the topics of I40, LP, and CE.