Role of Industry 4.0 in agile manufacturing to achieve sustainable development

The business world is becoming increasingly complex, disrupted, and uncertain. As Industry 4.0 (I4.0) takes shape, to endure this change and focus on growth, industries must learn to embrace change and move quickly; this is particularly so for the automotive industry, which is a major sector of any economy. Agility is needed to embrace this change and promote sustainability across every industry. To face these contingencies, it is essential to identify and understand the strategies that can aid industries in sustaining real-time scenarios. In this paper, we aim to assess the agility indicators that bring resilience to the inclusion of I4.0 and sustainability in the automotive sector. The unexpected changes in the environment related to sustainability and technological disruptions of I4.0 require the identification of sustainable agile mitigation strategies to manage such situations. The fuzzy Delphi methodology assesses agility indicators based on a questionnaire for prioritization. Further, the fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is utilized to prioritize these agility indicators with the agility strategies that manufacturing industries can deploy to enhance the sustainability of their operations. The fuzzy extension to the methodologies helps in incorporating vagueness and ambiguity in the decision-making process. A fuzzy approach to prioritizing agile strategies as the industries are changing is helpful. The decision makers have only a few clear ideas about how best to integrate them. Among the agile strategies, “resilience,” “technological capabilities,” and “customer-centric innovation” are the top strategies. By executing the strategies suggested in the study and understanding the agility indicators, practitioners can ensure resilience in the work systems and minimize the impact of the disruptions caused by the industrial revolution. Thus, this research has been underpinned by the organizational change theory and discusses all mitigation strategies concerning the rapid changes organizations are facing with the fourth industrial revolution.