Reality of Big Data Adoption in Supply Chain for Sustainable Manufacturing SMEs

The paper provides a literature review of Big Data Application (BDA) in Sustainable Manufacturing (SM) as focus of supply chain management. First of all, the concept of Big Data (BD) is explained followed by focusing on the dimensions and the potential of BD. It discusses the principle of SM, which is identified by literature as world-class sustainable manufacturing (WCSM). The literature review critically indicates differences and similarities between literatures in the research area to generate an entire understanding of the topic. Proper literature is provided to investigate the following aspects: utilization of BDA in manufacturing, BDA in manufacturing processes, principle of servitisiation, logistics and supplier integration, decision making processes and forecasting and finally sustainable aspects. Resulting research gaps are summarized and clustered to identify common gaps. Finally, the conclusion outlines cognitions provided by this literature review. The aim of this paper is to provide a literature review about BDA in SM as part of supply chain management to provide a general understanding of the topic and to identify common research gaps for further research projects. For achieving the aim some objectives have to be fulfilled. The concept of BD has to be explained first, before outlining the importance and the advantages of BDA. The meaning of SM is explained afterwards. A critical analysis of literature that combines both aspects leads to the understanding of BDA in Sustainable Manufacturing.