Beier, Grischa | Ullrich, André | Niehoff, Silke | Reißig, Malte | Habich, Matthias

Industry 4.0: How it is defined from a sociotechnical perspective andhow much sustainability it includeseA literature review

Abstract

Industry 4.0 has had a strong influence on the debate on the digitalization of industrial processes, despitebeing criticized for lacking a proper definition. However, Industry 4.0 might offer a huge chance to alignthe goals of a sustainable development with the ongoing digital transformation in industrial develop-ment. The main contribution of this paper is therefore twofold. We provide a de-facto definition of theconcept“Industry 4.0”from a sociotechnical perspective based on its most often cited key features, aswell as a thorough review of how far the concept of sustainability is incorporated in it.