Assessing the critical success factors for implementing industry 4.0 in the pharmaceutical industry: Implications for supply chain sustainability in emerging economies

The emerging technologies of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) are crucial to incorporating agility, sustainability, smartness, and competitiveness in the business model, enabling long-term sustainability practices in the pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC). By leveraging the latest technologies of I4.0, pharmaceutical companies can gain real-time visibility into their supply chain (SC) operations, allowing them to make data-driven decisions that improve SC performance, efficiency, resilience, and sustainability. However, to date, no research has examined the critical success factors (CSFs) that enable the pharmaceutical industry to adopt I4.0 successfully to enhance overall SC sustainability. This study, therefore, analyzed the potential CSFs for adopting I4.0 to increase all facets of sustainability in the PSC, especially from the perspective of an emerging economy like Bangladesh. Initially, sixteen CSFs were identified through a comprehensive literature review and expert validation. Later, the finalized CSFs were clustered into three relevant groups and analyzed using a Bayesian best-worst method (BWM)-based multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework. The study findings revealed that "sufficient investment for technological advancement", "digitalized product monitoring and traceability", and "dedicated and robust research and development (R&D) team" are the top three CSFs to adopt I4.0 in the PSC. The study’s findings can aid industrial practitioners, managers, and policymakers in creating effective action plans for efficiently adopting I4.0 in PSC to avail of its competitive benefits and ensure a sustainable future for the pharmaceutical industry.