THE ADOPTION OF INDUSTRY 4.0 TECHNOLOGIES STIMULATED CIRCULAR ECONOMY ACTIONS AT THE MICRO LEVEL: SURVEY IN LARGE TEXTILE INDUSTRIES LOCATED IN BRAZIL
The large textile industries are investing in Industry 4.0 technology to obtain economic benefits, reduce environment impacts and improve social aspects. The strategic thinking regarding Industry 4.0 technologies and circular economy seems to be emerging in this business sector. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate by correlation method if large size textile companies, located in Brazil, which adopted Industry 4.0 technologies boosted circular economy actions in micro level. The research method used was survey in over 100 textile companies with large size and data analysis by Pearson correlation between different variables to evaluate their relationship. The research concluded that the use of Industry 4.0 technologies supports textile industries to adopt more efficient and sustainable practices in their operations, boosting sustainable actions seen in circular economy and cleaner production, such as energy and natural resources consumption reduction, and contributing also for future research, because it presents the topic under a new perspective. The technologies also boost actions that support decision making and promote higher sustainability and flexibility on the production system in textile companies; actions that result in positive environment impacts in the industry and the community around, since minimize environment impacts of the activities and contributes to cleaner production and circular economy.