Evaluating Industry 4.0 technology and sustainable development goals – a social perspective
研究如何识别工业4.0技术对联合国可持续发展目标的影响程度和路径，提出结合犹豫模糊集、粗糙集、DEMATEL和解释结构模型的评估方法，并用世界经济论坛案例验证，发现大数据分析和云计算是关键技术。
Organisations are having difficulty in determining and integrating Industry 4.0 technologies (I4.0T) to improve social dimensions of sustainable performance. We address this issue by showing how to identify the impact degree and path of I4.0T using the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs). First, we identify the SDGs associated with I4.0 and establish an evaluation framework. Second, we introduce an evaluation method that integrates hesitant fuzzy sets, rough sets, decision-making, trial evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and interpretative structural modelling methods to identify the impact degree and path of I4.0T on SDGs. Third, we confirm the effectiveness of our framework and method using secondary case data from World Economic Forum reports. The case results show that I4.0T have varying direct and indirect influences on SDGs. Policy makers should consider that ‘Big Data and Analytics’ and ‘Cloud Computing’ are central I4.0T that link other technologies and SDGs. The prioritisation of I4.0T can lead to contributions to addressing ‘Responsible consumption and production’ and indirectly improve SDGs. The findings set an initial stage to help sequence investment in various technologies depending on SDGs. We identify sequential paths that can aid in planning for and investing in adopting I4.0T to better achieve SDGs.