Evaluation of circular supply chains barriers in the era of Industry 4.0 transition using an extended decision-making approach

Purpose: The poor leadership style is a key obstacle to the effective implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies. To successfully apply the Industry 4.0 technologies, which can enhance the sustainability of firms, senior management needs to be inspiring and transformational. On the other hand, numerous factors can hinder the Industry 4.0 transition and “Circular Supply Chain (CSC)” transformation. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to evaluate the related barriers of CSCs in the era of Industry 4.0 transition. Design/methodology/approach: The current study developed an innovative decision-making approach with the help of the “Combined Compromise Solution (CoCoSo)” method and “Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC)” method on the “q-Rung Orthopair Fuzzy Sets (q-ROFSs).” CRITIC in this combined method was used to predict the importance or weighting degrees of the CSCs barriers in the age of Industry 4.0 transition. Findings: The results of this study found that the absence of knowledge about the Industry 4.0 technologies and circular approaches was the first barrier followed by the problems associated with data security in relationship management in circular flows, the deficiency of knowledge regarding the data management among stakeholders and the lack of awareness about the potential benefits of autonomous systems in labor-oriented “End-of-Life (EOL)” activities for CSCs in the era of Industry 4.0 transition. Research limitations/implications: A limitation may be that despite the generalizability of the proposed framework, the results may differ when it is implemented in different sectors. By emphasizing the obstacles to sustainable operations of supply chains (SCs) in the context of circular economy (CE) and Industry 4.0, researchers working in the same domain may be encouraged to find ways to remove such obstacles in different settings. As suggested in this study, the priority of various barriers helps researchers suggest effective strategies for the sustainable development of companies within the current dynamic business atmosphere. Practical implications: The findings of this paper can aid industry practitioners in fixing their attention on the digitization or automation of their systems in the context of sustainability or resource circularity. Note that within the current context of CE, one of the crucial issues is how to conserve the existing resources; the answer to this question can save the environment. Originality/value: The current paper proposed a new multi-criteria decision-making method using q-ROFSs to analyze, rank and evaluate the CSC barriers in the age of Industry 4.0 transition. To this end, a new decision-making approach with the help of CRITIC and CoCoSo methods on q-ROFSs called q-ROF-CRITIC-CoCoSo was introduced to evaluate the CSCs barriers in the era of Industry 4.0 transition. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.