Nowadays, Lean Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, and Sustainability are important concerns for the companies and in a general way for the society, principally, the influence of the two production philosophies, Lean Manufacturing and Industry 4.0, in the three main pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social. According to the literature review done in this work, these relations are not well known and are dispersed by different sustainability’s criteria. To address this gap, this research proposes a structural equation model, with six hypotheses, to quantitatively measure the effects of Lean Manufacturing and Industry 4.0, in Sustainability. To statistically validate such hypotheses, we collected 252 valid questionnaires from industrial companies of Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain). Results show that: (1) it is not conclusive that Lean Manufacturing is correlated with any of the sustainability pillars; and (2) Industry 4.0 shows a strong correlation with the three sustainability pillars. These results can contribute as an important decision support for the industrial companies and its stakeholders, even because not all the results are in line with other opinions and studies.

Each time a relevant proposal occurs, existing perspectives, concepts or fundamentals are confronted by emergent ones. The Industry 4.0 and its promoted production control systems based on Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), made splash new potentials for the binomial human and technology (equipments and its settings). Several authors explore the envisaged required more physical and digital connection to announce interesting transformative changes, where selfconfigure and adaptive machines sustain the application of corrective decisions. This paper exposes a spectrum of existing CPS definitions and models and contributes with the fundamentals for an effective intelligent CPS (I-CPS), where a double loop learning process, allows its supporting software algorithms to be changed or reprogrammed. Instead, not only selfconfigure machines but its configuring software, too.

PurposeThe objective of this paper is to provide a deeper insight into the relationship of the issue “lean vs agile” in order to inform managers towards more coherent decisions especially in a dynamic, unpredictable, uncertain, non‐linear environment.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology is an exploratory study based on secondary data analysis.Findings“Lean” and “agile” are two exclusive concepts “in the limit” and “agile” has a higher potential for serving as an instrument for starting “a journey” towards a new sustainable organizational paradigm.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research in the context of the arguments presented is necessary, especially in the “field” and on primary data.Practical implicationsThere are clearly indicated contexts of primary applications of “lean” and “agile”, and especially along with the techniques, methodologies and system‐thinking informed by chaordic system thinking (CST), which should be of help for managers.Originality/valueThe novel contribution of the paper is the presentation of the argumentation on “lean” and “agile” as exclusive concepts and their analysis through the CST lenses, as well as the presentation of suggestions for development of new manufacturing systems paradigms.

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This research evaluates IRCA registered auditors' perspectives of the added value of ISO 9001:2015 to the organizations that adopt it and are certified accordingly, bringing a more independent perspective than previous studies based on quality managers or consultants' views. Supported by a worldwide survey among IRCA registered auditors and the adoption of a Covariance based-Structural Equation Modelling (CB-SEM) approach the results point out that the auditors' judgment regarding the ISO 9001:2015 value is influenced by their perceptions (regarding the document) and experience (auditing). The research results highlight the importance of selecting auditors with the appropriate ISO 9001:2015 knowledge and experience to assess ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems (QMSs) within the certification process, therefore, contributing to the business and processes performance improvement and sustainable outcomes.