The proliferation of cyber‐physical systems introduces the fourth stage of industrialization, commonly known as Industry 4.0. There are many framework and researches have been conducted to implement the concept of Industry 4.0 in a customized way for different manufacturing and service requirements. In this article, a smart factory framework is presented by vertical integration of various components that incorporates industrial network, cloud, and supervisory control terminals with different functions, such as production, maintenance, energy consumption, water consumption, and so on, in a factory for optimizing resource utilization and eliminating all type wastages to enhance sustainable manufacturing. Moreover, this kind of self‐organized system enables the factory to achieve higher efficiency, minimized negative environmental impacts and improvements in other key performance indicators. To evaluate the outcome of this model implementation, a case study has been conducted on a cement plant where it is evident that after implementation of this model of sustainable manufacturing system the key environmental performance indicators such as specific energy consumption, carbon footprint, specific water consumption was reduced. It is observed that after implementing the sustainable manufacturing techniques, there is a substantial improvement in various performance indicators, those are, production volume of the factory was increased by 13.24%, process waste percentage came down by 12.79%, OEE improved by 12.94%. The major environmental performance parameters like specific energy consumption came down by 9.33%, specific carbon foot print came down by 9.33% and specific water consumption came down by 3.12% after implementing the sustainable manufacturing model.

Supply chain management (SCM) is defined as the integration of key business processes from end user through original suppliers providing products, services and information that add value for customers and other stakeholders. The customer is an integral part of the supply chain and the primary purpose of any supply chain is to satisfy customer needs in the process of generating the profit for itself. Supply chain activities begin with a customer order and end with a satisfied customer. There must be an easy access for coordination, collaboration and integration among the suppliers for effective Supply Chain Management. These elements are equally important for fluctuation of orders, inventory maintenance, replenishment lead times, transportation costs etc. Certain incentives are also permitted by the supply chain partners in order to avoid the distortions (unavoidable delays, over ordering etc.). Quality information can prevent manual mistakes in view of the elemental aspects.

In this research work, different parameters have been studied which affect the energy consumption of belt conveyors. The effect of conveying distance and vertical lift on energy consumption was studied in detail by collecting energy consumption and other associated data of belt conveyors from different cement plants and analyzed with the help of different statistical analysis. The highest specific energy consumption was found to be 0.0011 kWh/Ton‐m in the smallest belt conveyor of 15 m and the lowest specific energy consumption was found to be 0.0007 kWh/Ton‐m in the longest belt conveyor of 100 m. Specific energy consumption is reduced up to 36% per ton‐meter of material conveying in the longest belt conveyor compared with the smallest belt conveyor. On the contrary, the specific energy consumption for different vertical lifts is found almost the same. Hence, it can be suggested that for horizontal conveying, the series of belt conveyors should be replaced with a single long conveyor to achieve maximum conveying efficiency and to lower specific energy consumption. The above study will be helpful for heavy industries such as cement plants, steel plants, and so forth to reduce their energy consumption on belt conveyors and achieve the environmental sustainability goals. At the last part of the study an equation is derived for estimating energy consumption in belt conveyors by applying multiple regression analysis. The proposed equation will be helpful for estimation of energy consumption of belt conveyors according to which the decision for conveyor length can be taken.

It is normally assessed that a Country’s economy is directly proportional to the use of steel that the country is having. This is true and at the same time, some adverse situations are also caused due to such industrialization. In an Indian economy, it is advisable to open more and more industry sectors rather to seize them down. Motivation from governmental as well as nongovernmental agencies would be more effective to keep a sound mind towards the environmental assessments which is the call of the day the whole globe around. We have got much concern and responsibility to combat the climate change which has become a drastic phenomenon for rest of our lives as well as our ancestors. The paper discusses about the sponge iron industries and various methods to help support the environmental issues. It focuses how the environmental system related to the sponge iron industries in the country would help to build a green globe around in near future without affecting the economy of the country.

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