Sustainability and Industry 4.0: The role of social, environmental and technological factors in the development of digital manufacturing

Sustainability and Industry 4.0 have been emerging topics in recent years, in theory as well as in practice. Related technological topics like 5G technology, blockchain, artificial intelligence and digital twins among others, are gaining importance. In addition, these themes are becoming increasingly merged with a discussion on I4.0 from societal and organizational perspectives. As a background to this paper, we discuss recent research in this area as covered in this Special Issue. We identify accepted submissions covering four conceptual themes and three methodological themes in the SI. Finally, we outline opportunities for future research: these include human interaction with I4.0 technology -enabled workspaces as well as societal aspects of I4.0 in relation to sustainability efforts. Last, but not least, interaction of I4.0 with other disciplines, such as sustainable manufacturing, reliability, maintenance and disaster management are proposed.