Towards Industry 5.0: A Systematic Literature Review on Sustainable and Green Composite Materials Supply Chains

Abstract: Sustainable supply chain management is a key objective of Industry 5.0, leveraging technologies like real-time data analytics, connectivity, and intelligent automation. At the same time, composite materials present benefits such as lightweight structures, crucial for reducing fuel consumption. This study investigates the intersection between sustainable supply chains and composites by analyzing the current status, research gaps, methodologies, and future research opportunities through bibliometric analysis and a systematic review of the state of the art in the composite materials supply chain. A systematic literature review approach is employed to analyze the Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) databases, offering a comprehensive overview of the existing literature. Through bibliometric analysis, the study investigates countries, authors, citations, keywords, subject areas, and article themes within the metadata to provide additional context. An in-depth analysis of thirty selected papers (n=30) sheds light on the key contributions, major challenges, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across various instances of composite material supply chains, resulting in a generalized overview. Furthermore, this research suggests future directions to link the sustainability efforts in composite materials supply chains with current research gaps. The study underscores diverse research themes in the field, highlighting a few influential works and presenting opportunities for advancement in this emerging area. Collectively, these findings offer valuable insights and a robust roadmap for future research in this domain.