Abstract
Both modern multi- and intermodal supply chains pose a significant challenge to control and maintain while offering numerous optimization potential. Digital Twins have been proposed to improve supply chains. However, as of today, they are only used for certain parts of the entire supply chain. This paper presents an initial framework for a holistic Digital Supply Chain Twin (DSCT) capable of including an entire multimodal supply chain. Such a DSCT promises to enable several improvements all across the supply chain while also be capable of simulating and evaluate several different scenarios for the supply chain. Therefore, the DSCT will not only be able to optimize multi- and intermodal supply chains but also makes them potentially more robust by identifying possible issues early on. This paper discusses the major requirements that such a DSCT must fulfil to be useful and how several information technologies that matured in recent years or are about the mature are the key enablers to fulfil these requirements. Finally, a suggested high-level architecture for such a DSCT is presented as a first step towards the realization of a DSCT, as presented in this work
Highlights
Globalization, the cross-border economic integration of companies, and changing customer behavior lead to the increasing complexity of supply chains and poses major challenges for companies ([1], p. 5, [2])
Is a dynamic simulation model [2,6,7] that aggregates the available data in a structured way and allows simulations on the supply chain, including transport chains that are close to reality
We applied a Problem-Centered approach due to the reason the shortcomings in current transport networks were the entry point of our research. This is done on the maritime transport chain example, which represents an important element in international supply chains
Summary
Globalization, the cross-border economic integration of companies, and changing customer behavior lead to the increasing complexity of supply chains and poses major challenges for companies ([1], p. 5, [2]). A DSCT is a dynamic simulation model [2,6,7] that aggregates the available data in a structured way and allows simulations on the supply chain, including transport chains that are close to reality. Asset-focused twins do not sufficiently represent the wide range of applications and the diverse areas of application and possibilities of implementing the whole concept This allows for an evaluation of different scenarios and their outcome and allows the selection of the most beneficial setup. We applied a Problem-Centered approach due to the reason the shortcomings in current transport networks were the entry point of our research This is done on the maritime transport chain example, which represents an important element in international supply chains.
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