Title: Transforming towards a smarter supply chain

Authors: Shubham Tripathi; Manish Gupta

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Department, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, India ' Mechanical Engineering Department, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, India

Abstract: Present day supply chains are becoming complex and uncertain, and numerous technological innovations are being incorporated to enhance them, making supply chains smarter. The purpose of this paper is to build up a transformation map to move towards smart supply chain. The paper presents a framework to formulate transformation strategy and discusses implementation strategy in detail. Several factors to consider while taking the transformation decision are also discussed. Various reported case studies and actual implementation reports of individual technologies are considered to understand and report the impacts (observed and speculated) of these transformations. Smart supply chains are critical for Industry 4.0 (fourth industrial revolution) and their need has been highlighted by numerous researchers but the literature on how to evolve into one is scant. Understanding transformation towards smart supply chain and its impacts will guide and motivate practitioners in restructuring their supply chain.

Keywords: supply chain transformation; supply chain innovation; smart supply chain; enabling technologies; digitisation; digital supply chain; Industry 4.0; smart.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2020.108694

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2020 Vol.36 No.3, pp.319 - 342

Received: 23 Aug 2018
Accepted: 16 Nov 2018
Published online: 27 Jul 2020 *

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