Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRODUCTION RESEARCH
Volume 58, Issue 5, Pages 1425-1441Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2019.1641642
Keywords
industry 4; 0; supply chain management; supply chain innovation; industrial internet of things
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The Fourth Industrial Revolution - also known as Industry 4.0 (i4.0) - comprises the digitalisation of the industrial sector. This paper uses the theoretical lens of supply chain innovation (SCI) to investigate the implications of i4.0 on supply chain management. For these purposes, the method of structured content analysis is applied to more than 200 use cases of i4.0-enabled SCI introduced by both established and startup companies. i4.0-enabled SCI manifests along three dimensions: process, technology, and business architecture. The key findings of this study can be summarised as follows: first, i4.0-enabled SCI extends the initial focus on productivity improvements in SC processes towards scalability and flexibility. Second, extant i4.0 solutions rely mostly on analytics and smart things while omitting smart people technology and the human-centric approach associated with the i4.0 paradigm. Third, established companies adopt i4.0 merely to sustain their existing business architectures while startup companies radically change their operating models, relying heavily on data analytics and the platform economy. Consequently, established companies pursue a problem-driven, engineering-based approach to SCI while startup companies follow an 'asset-light', business-driven approach. Lastly, there are two distinct approaches to digitalising operational SC processes: platform-based crowdsourcing of standard processes and on-demand provision of customised services.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available