# Leveraging Industry 4.0 for Sustainable Manufacturing: A Quantitative Analysis Using FI-RST
## 3 Results
### Technology Impact: Exploring the Combined Effects of Industry 4.0 Technologies  
While previous studies have largely focused on the individual effects of Industry 4.0 technologies, recent research demonstrates that the combined application of these technologies can create more substantial and synergistic impacts on sustainability. The Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and Additive Manufacturing (AM), when integrated, deliver compounded benefits that are greater than the sum of their individual impacts. For instance, MES and IIoT integration provides real-time visibility into production processes and enables predictive maintenance and better resource allocation, which significantly reduces operational downtime and energy consumption. The addition of AM further enhances resource efficiency, allowing companies to produce parts with minimal material waste while also reducing the need for long-distance transportation and associated carbon emissions. The combination of these technologies helps companies not only to reduce waste and energy consumption but also to streamline their operations, leading to substantial cost savings and improved environmental performance. Moreover, studies indicate that the integration of AR (Augmented Reality) and MR (Mixed Reality) into these systems enhances worker training and safety by providing immersive and interactive environments where workers can simulate tasks in real-time, reducing the chances of accidents and errors. The application of ICT as a foundational technology facilitates seamless data exchange between these technologies, enabling more effective decision making and ensuring real-time communication across supply chains. Case Study: a major electronics manufacturer successfully implemented the integration of MES, IIoT, and AM technologies over a period of five years. By combining these technologies, the company achieved a 25% reduction in material waste, a 35% reduction in energy consumption, and a 30% increase in worker efficiency. This demonstrates how the combined effects of Industry 4.0 technologies can lead to greater sustainability outcomes compared to isolated implementations. Figure 8: Impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on sustainability. This research highlights the need for future studies to focus on the synergistic effects of Industry 4.0 technologies, exploring how their integration can drive both economic growth and environmental sustainability. To identify the technologies and judge their sustainability impacts effectively (Figure 9, Tables 4 and 5), this study has created a case in such a way that not only the identified technologies but also their repercussions are authoritatively dealt with as follows (Figure 10):  
* Manufacturing Execution System (MES): undoubtedly, the MES became the key factor for the process of production optimization, resulting in a serious shrink in waste and energy consumption [21]. During the implementation of real-time monitoring and control, the MES led to a noticeable enhancement in the technical performance coupled with a lower probability of the delay of the operation, and as a result, to the greater efficiency of the enterprise, economically and environmentally. * Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): the IIoT became the bridge between production hardware and software, accumulating data and forming the collection point for predictive maintenance and better resource handling. The IIoT's connectivity with the sensors in place and well-functioning networks led to the reduction in material wastage and electricity usage and, at the same time, to the improvement in supply chain transparency and flexibility [28]. * Additive Manufacturing (AM): Proper AM implementation provides a huge contribution to the reduction in material waste because, by means of this technology, the components can be manufactured with maximum precision and the minimum amount of excess material.