Application of industry 4.0 enablers in supply chain management: Scientometric analysis and critical review

The supply chain management (SCM) environment is rapidly evolving as a result of the critical role industry 4.0 enablers are playing. Consequently, and to leverage the power of industry 4.0 enablers (I4Es) including; artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), internet of things (IoT) and big data (BD), researchers and industry practitioners have employed these I4Es to resolve several pain points in supply chain management at all levels, improve operational efficiency, manage demand volatility, tackle cost fluctuations, and make data-driven decisions. Thus, I4Es are working as an evolutionary catalyst for supply chain management in myriads of ways. As such, the application of I4Es in supply chain management (I4Es-in-SCM) research has witnessed tremendous growth over the past years. This study conducted a scientometric analysis and critical review of the I4Es-in-SCM research to monitor trends, visualize the structure of knowledge, identify gaps, and highlight future research avenues. The paper recruited and analysed bibliographic data of 786 papers from Scopus on the application of I4Es-in-SCM research. Analysis showed that the last two decades witnessed a phenomenal growth in research on the application of I4Es-in-SCM, with at least 42 % of all countries making contributions. The analysis showed wider collaboration between countries and noticed a rather significant collaboration among researchers within a given continent. The study also identified the most influential researchers, journals, and countries as well as trending themes and topics in the application of I4Es-in-SCM research. After delineating boundaries of scientific knowledge, the study proffered areas that require further research. The novelty of this study lies in providing a more holistic statistical and visualized analysis of the structure of knowledge, productivity, and scientific collaborations of researchers, journals and countries in the application of I4Es-in-SCM management research. Accordingly, the study outcomes may serve as a useful reference to supply chain academics, early-stage researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and organizations in understanding the structure of knowledge on the application of I4Es-in-SCM research and may constitute a basis for future research.