Technologies Associated with Industry 4.0 in Green Supply Chains: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

This study aims to review the literature published in the last 15 years (2007–2022) that relates to Industry 4.0 and the green supply chain (GSC). This review identifies the enabling technologies for Industry 4.0 that are being applied to improve GSC practices and establishes the points of its future research agenda. A systematic literature review (SLR) of this topic was conducted using Web of Science and Scopus as databases. Our study combined descriptive and conceptual analysis, guided by three review questions. These questions were proposed to identify how Industry 4.0 technologies can enhance the development of GSCs. After refinement, 75 papers were analyzed. This research underlines what technologies of Industry 4.0 are being implemented to improve GSC aspects. In addition, it shows in which GSC practices the application of these technologies is being considered and what challenges of implementing Industry 4.0 in GSCs have been identified in the literature. Finally, all these findings enhance establishing a future research agenda. Current studies have focused on analyzing the benefits of implementing Industry 4.0 in GSCs. However, this paper delves into enabling technologies for Industry 4.0 and GSC practices and does not only discuss them in general terms.