# Support of Advanced Technologies in Supply Chain Processes and Sustainability Impact
## 2 Background
### Supply Chain Sustainability Performance Dimensions
In contrast, an increased rate of production, thanks to industrial automation, would be associated with higher resource and energy consumption as well as an increase in pollution levels [52,53]. This is why [PERSON], the Toyota Production System mentor, considered overproduction the worst kind of waste and created the concept of JIT (Just-in-Time) production [54]. Having these roots, Lean Production [55] has been synergistically associated with sustainability, under the designation of Lean-Green [56, 57, 58]. Such a link has also been extended to SC [59, 60, 61]. Thinking of the social consequences of digital transformation and the reorganization of the industry, experts believe that digitalization and the emergence of labor-saving technologies will eliminate most lower-skilled jobs while creating countless job opportunities in various areas such as automation engineering, control systems design, machine learning, and software engineering [62]. Organizations are responsible for their business activities. These activities affect the environment, society, and economy not only in their own business but also for their SC partners [63]. In terms of sustainability performance measurement, a balanced set of indicators that covers the three dimensions of sustainability is required (social, economic and environmental). Some environmental sustainability indicators have been used, for example, rate of hazardous waste, amount of water consumed per year in industrial processes, or the amount of energy used per year [64]. Several sustainability indicators belonging to each of the three dimensions of sustainability, used in many works, come from a set of standards and guidelines. According to [PERSON] and [PERSON] [65] the three SC sustainability-related guidelines that directly address the three dimensions of sustainability are: (i) the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI); (ii) the OECD sustainability indicators and (iii) the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE). For example, [PERSON] et al. [66] proposed an indicator to, jointly, measure sustainability dimensions grounded on the GRI indicators and Overall Equipment of Effectiveness (OEE), in order to measure operational performance. In the literature, there are several performance measures that have been used to evaluate the impact of advanced technologies on organizational performance. According to [PERSON] et al. [67] Industry 4.0 facilitates achieving a high level of process integration, leading to improvement in organizational and SC performance on all three sustainability dimensions. In the economic dimension, the use of advanced technologies contributesstrongly to value creation, manufacturing flexibility, and product customization, leading to increased customer satisfaction [5]. The automation and digitalization features of SC 4.0 drive the manufacturing organizations towards reduced lead times, lower manufacturing costs, and higher quality [68]. In the environmental dimension, the real-time information gathered from different value chain partners helps the organizations allocate their manufacturing resources, such as materials, energy, water, and products, efficiently [41]. The use of advanced technologies also supports the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions [69], energy consumption [70], and inventory levels of raw material; reductions in fuel consumption as a result of improved transport and logistics planning; and use of advanced tracking and monitoring systems [71]. On the social dimension, it offers abundant opportunities for employees to learn new technologies, thereby improving morale and motivation [70], offering an improved work environment and safe working conditions for employees [67]. In this study a hierarchical approach was used considering firstly the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social, and economic), then a set of performance measures associated with each dimension, and finally several performance indicators that reflect each performance measure, Table 2.