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Industry 4.0 and Lean Production are a successful match in terms of performance improvement. While we understand the combined potential, there is still poor understanding of how companies should embrace digital transformation to make it successful and sustainable, and the role that lean plays in it. In this paper, we investigate how manufacturing companies embark upon digital transformation and how being lean might affect it.

We conducted multiple case studies with 19 manufacturing companies. We identified two clusters of companies according to their Lean maturity, and we assessed digital transformation patterns by analyzing insights coming both from cases and from the literature. Integrating cross-case analysis results, we developed a framework that shows two different digital transformation patterns according to companies’ commitment to Lean.

Our findings first and foremost show the significant role of lean in driving digital transformation. We identify two patterns, namely Sustaining digital transformation pattern, characterized by the pervasive role of lean culture with small and horizontal digital changes, involvement of people and willingness to maintain continuous process improvement, and Disruptive digital transformation pattern, characterized by few and large digital steps that imply a disruptive and radical change in the company system.

Empirical evidence supports the relevance of the proposed model and its practical usefulness. It can be used to design digital transformation, prepare properly the introduction of Industry 4.0 through a lean approach, and plan the future desired state, identifying the Industry 4.0 technologies that should be implemented.

It is widely recognized that the relationship between Industry 4.0 and lean is significant and positive, yet little evidence was presented to back that. We aim at bringing this debate forward by providing initial empirical evidence of the significant role that lean has on digital transformation, showing how lean drives the digital transformation pattern of companies.

Even though the integration of Lean Supply Chain Management (LSCM) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies is relatively recent, it has been receiving a lot of attention. Partly because it is a recent field of practise and research and partly because the number of works developed in this field has grown rapidly, it is important to frequently update the perspectives on this field of investigation. Thus, this study aims to review the integration between LSCM and I4.0 analysing relationship at operative, tactical and strategic levels.

Systematic literature review was conducted to identify and explain the integration of LSCM and I4.0 from scientific sources that were published before March 2021.

The analysis of the literature revealed the level of integration of LSCM and I4.0 is present at different managerial levels. Moreover, when the integration is detailed at different managerial levels, it appears that LSCM paves the way for the adoption of I4.0 at a strategic level, while I4.0 technologies promise to enhance LSCM practices at the operational level.

The main contribution of this study is the framework which shows that LSCM paves the way for the adoption of I4.0 at a strategic level, while I4.0 technologies promise to enhance LSCM practices at the operational level.

This study develops a new perspective of the articles published under the thematic of LSCM and I4.0. Additionally, it proposes a framework of analysis that can be used by future researchers. Finally, it shows the most recent implementations of LSCM and I4.0, exposing the current trends, improvements and also the main gaps.

Using an abductive perspective, this study aims to review the scientific literature about the governance and management of the digital supply chain (DSC) in the context of the business organizations, providing an overview of the state of the art of the research and outlining a future research agenda with a knowledge management (KM) focus.

After investigating the Scopus database, 54 articles were identified as relevant and then subjected to an initial discernment. After this assessment, 34 articles focusing on operations management were further analyzed through both a bibliometric analysis and a content analysis.

The DSC represents a research area of increasing attention, with relevant contributions to several aspects of the field, as well as about KM. At the same time, the results show that the scientific literature on DSC models, solutions and applications is fragmented. Although the analysis has found a heterogeneous literature, two main streams of research seem to emerge: KM in the business culture development about DSC and KM in the business technological evolution about DSC.

Although there exists growing interest in the scientific community, or perhaps because of this, area of research remains fragmented and under-theorized, thus requiring more systematic studies considering both economic and social aspects of the DSC. This study aims to provide innovative insights about this evolution, especially highlighting the two main contributions of KM in DSCs that have been revealed (business culture development and business technological evolution).