Addressing challenges to cloud manufacturing in industry 4.0 environment using an integrated approach: Implications for sustainability

Cloud manufacturing (CM) is an innovative and distributed manufacturing concept enabled by modern tools, offering significant opportunities in the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) environment. Emerging economies (EEs), particularly in the ready-made garment (RMG) industry, are increasingly adopting CM to enhance competitiveness, seize new business opportunities, and increase sustainability in operations. Nevertheless, there are many obstacles to overcome while implementing CM in an I4.0 environment. This study identifies, prioritizes, and analyzes the challenges to implementing CM in the RMG sector of an EE like Bangladesh. A two-step approach was employed: first, fourteen challenges were identified through a comprehensive literature review and expert input, then ranked using the Best–Worst Method (BWM). Second, interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) were used to explore the interrelationships among these challenges. The results highlight that “lack of interest from top management”, “usability challenges”, and “inefficient financial management” are the most critical barriers to CM adoption. These findings offer actionable insights for industrial managers and policymakers to address these barriers, facilitate the effective integration of CM, and contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This work contributes to the literature by offering a structured methodology for prioritizing challenges and uncovering their interdependencies, facilitating more informed decision-making for sustainable industrial practices.