Application of Industry 4.0 towards Achieving Business Sustainability

Industry is at a precipice of change driven by sustainability and the fourth industrial revolution, known as Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 adopts a system of systems and data centric approach to develop smart businesses, smart factories and smart products. The Process Centric Energy Model, which adopts a system of systems approach is applied to optimize total business energy demand and GHG emissions. The model comparatively analyses the impacts of application of Industry 4.0 technologies of internet of things, cyber physical systems, big data analytics, automation and mobility on energy demand, GHG emissions and personnel requirements of a maintenance process. The model results demonstrate that integration of Industry 4.0 technologies enables significant reduction in energy demand, GHG emissions and personnel requirements. The results affirm the model's capability in optimizing business energy demand and evaluating the impacts of Industry 4.0 technologies on business energy demand. The model findings affirms the application of Industry 4.0 in reducing business energy demand, towards attaining business sustainability.