The Role of Industry 4.0 and Circular Economy for Sustainable Operations: The Case of Bike Industry

Abstract

In this paper, sustainable design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment, and the health and comfort of building occupants, thereby improving financial performance. The basic objectives of sustainability are to reduce consumption of non-renewable resources, minimize waste, and create healthy, productive environments. A sustainable alternative to this production system is Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and circular economy (CE). The contribution of this paper is integrating sustainable production and design decisions of a supply chain in the adoption of I4.0 aimed at cost minimization, in which the decision variables include the production rate of engineered-to-order (ETO) components, design time of general components, and time period of advertising and sales promotions. The validation of the implementation of CE and its production and sale strategies are demonstrated through I4.0. The results presented in this paper may have significant practical value, notably with respect to manufacturers in the bike industry.