Connecting circular economy and industry 4.0

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to understand the hidden connection between Circular Economy (CE) and Industry 4.0 in the context of supply chain. The factors responsible for linking CE and Industry 4.0 are studied from two angles viz. from the enablers’ side and barriers’ side. In the paper, twenty-six significant enabling and fifteen challenging factors are identified which are further factorized using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). DEMATEL approach is applied on the factors constructed from PCA. Here, the DEMATEL is applied for three different sets of data termed as Optimistic, Pessimistic and Most Likely. The paper identified Artificial Intelligence, Service and Policy Framework, and Circular Economy are significant enablers connecting CE and Industry 4.0. Similarly, paper reports Interface Designing and Automated Synergy Model as the most significant challenges to link CE and Industry 4.0 in a supply chain.