Cyber Physical Systems in Supply Chain Management

Abstract

Industry 4.0 provides tremendous opportunities for businesses and suppliers through increasingly digitalizing supply chain operations. Cyber physical systems offer the required preconditions for supply chain preparation and management flexibility. But for companies, it is a big challenge to build such a scheme. Strategic and contemporary problems are the maintenance of supply chains and their subsystems. Supply chains’ profitability relies on their rapid versatility. Logistics must prepare for the versatility needs as a supply chain mechanism using an increased concentration of knowledge and advanced data collection and analytics technologies. Indeed, the knowledge flow which controls the physical flow represents a critical problem for supply chain management. While the overarching goals of Supply Chain 4.0 are to improve distributing procedures using the production process and use of broad perspective, flexibility, and new technologies, with the overall objective of increasing productivity, promptness, and competitiveness. Chain 4.0, in operating its manufacturing and information technology systems, lacks semantic requirements, weak compatibility, and a lack of protection. Blockchain, intelligent contracts, implementations of artificial intelligence, cyber-physical networks, the Internet of Things, and digital industrial economy form the foundation technology of the Supply Chain 4.0. Each technology creates cyber security problems, separately and in combination, which must be solved. The research uses interfaces to other similar applications in business-level topics (e.g., supply chains). The vision may contribute to discovering new guidelines for structural control, such as Industry 4.0. Technology-enabled new manufacturing strategy that requires highly customized network supply control, resilient regulatory compliance, management decision-making improvement for the design and planning, and monitoring of robust and digital manufacturers are a few examples of how manufacturing and logistics networks endorse operator 4.0 change are the cobots, enhanced reality, and inventive workstations. Another theme in this field is sustainable production processes and other closed-loop supply chains. Increased elements and structures include considering diverse and heterogeneous business systems (e.g., decision-making). These are interdependent networks and are developed by various stakeholders. To take advantage of this, a system-of-systems ecosystem is required to integrate systems (SoS). Models are needed that evolve to the globalized society. Some of the adaptation is through listening; others have intelligent agents’ self-organization. In general, model and device adjustment and (self-)adaptation must be scalable and supported. Loose coupling and developing system infrastructure are required. For the coming years, the vision of the analysis community’s overall contribution in transport and industrial processes will be to put researchers together to present and address topics related to new manufacturing modeling management and control in the evolving industry of resilient and creative SoS and supply networks focused on Industry 4.0.