Effect of Lean4.0 on Sustainability Performance: A Review

The high consumption of natural resources and their scarcity made sustainability a buzzword and one of the main concerns of society. Based on current research, Lean production and Industry 4.0 strategies are promising in this regard. They argue to offer cost and time efficiency, labor productivity increase, and other benefits. In the literature, there are works on separate effects of Lean and Industry 4.0 on Sustainability, as well as high compatibility between Industry 4.0 and Lean, where one strategy comprehends the use of another. Only a few articles consider the integrated effect and mostly lack empirical validation. This paper aims to address this gap by conducting a systematic literature review on both separate and integrated effects of Lean and Industry 4.0 (Lean 4.0) on three pillars of sustainability (economic, environmental, social). Additionally, several sustainability indicators as differentiation factors are formed and presented as a checklist to assess the effect of Lean and Industry 4.0 concepts. The findings reveal that Lean and Industry 4.0 has a somewhat uncertain or twofold correlation with sustainability, where Lean 4.0 has a strong positive correlation. The results of the study can be used by researchers for another large-scale research that empirically validates the developed hypothesis and by managers in the strategy development and decision-making processes.