The Role of Industry 4.0 in Supply Chain Management

Dear Colleagues,

For many years, cooperative value-creation has been the stronghold against a rapidly changing global business environment (Ghasemi et al., 2022). While being the flagship of the most successful supply chains (SC), integration and coordination are the practical way to align all supply chain members’ decisions toward a set of common goals (Glock & Grosse, 2021). The benefits stemming from channel-wide coordination are still more enjoyable when unpredictability is the distinctive feature of the global scenario. Events such as, for instance, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia–Ukraine conflict have already disrupted several supply chains while even endangering their survival. Therefore, efforts to support and sustain supply chain integration and coordination are very welcomed.

In that regard, a great leap forward would be that permitted by the new manufacturing paradigm of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), which has introduced a new era of digitally networked production (Nadkarni and Prügl, 2021). The main objective of I4.0 is to increase the connectivity of various entities on the shop floor and along the supply chain as a whole, hence avoiding information disruptions, potential inefficiencies, and enhancing performance (Bai et al., 2020). At the core of this new paradigm are many advanced technologies, such as the Internet of Things, blockchain, advanced robotics, additive manufacturing, big data, and artificial intelligence, which may generate a relevant multiplier effect if combined with Operational Research (OR) methods.

The focus of this Special Issue (SI) lies at the intersection of supply chain management and I4.0, specifically on how I4.0, along with its enabling technologies, is reshaping the theory and practice of Supply Chain Management (SCM).

Some of the questions this SI wants to answer are:

• Is there an actual relationship between SCM and I4.0?
• Is it possible to quantitatively evaluate the impact of I4.0 on SC performance?
• How are the I4.0 technologies supporting novel operating modalities of SCs?
• How to discriminate the impact of the various I4.0 technologies on the effectiveness and efficiency of SCs? Is it possible to classify these technologies in some way?
• Are there specific bundles of technologies that are often implemented in combination, also considering OR methods?
• Is there a definite path to follow in digitalizing SCs? Is it dependent on the specific industry sector?

With this Special Issue, we want to solicit research endeavours that help answer some of the above questions but also dissect the multifarious reality that characterizes manufacturing SCs in the I4.0 era. Specifically, beyond technology-driven supply chain management applications, we welcome contributions with quantitative and qualitative methodologies, analytical and data-driven optimisation, and simulation.

References

• Bai, C., Dallasega, P., Orzes, G., & Sarkis, J. Industry 4.0 technologies assessment: A sustainability perspective. International Journal of Production Economics, 2020, 107776.
• Ghasemi, E., Lehoux, N., & Rönnqvist, M. Coordination, cooperation, and collaboration in production-inventory systems: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Production Research, 2022, doi:10.1080/00207543.2022.2093681.
• Glock, C. H., & Grosse, E. H. The impact of controllable production rates on the performance of inventory systems: A systematic review of the literature. European Journal of Operational Research, 2021, 288, 703-720. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2020.05.033.
• Nadkarni, S. and Prügl R. Digital transformation: a review, synthesis and opportunities for future research, Management Review Quarterly, 2021, 71, 233–341. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-020-00185-7.

Prof. Dr. Mosè Gallo
Dr. Davide Castellano
Guest Editors

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• industry 4.0
• supply chain management
• integration and coordination models
• operational Research methods