Exploring the Potentials of Automation in Logistics and Supply Chain Management: Paving the Way for Autonomous Supply Chains

Abstract

The world of logistics is changing and entering a new era. The advance of digitalization and technologization enables new business models, increased process efficiencies, novel planning approaches, and much more but, on the downside, there is also the risk of being lost in the maelstrom of developments. Within these developments, the automation of logistics processes and ultimately the design of autonomous logistics systems is one of the most defining trends that has far-reaching consequences for the planning and execution of future logistics processes. This Special Issue aims to contribute to the discussion and to get to the bottom of the question of how the path towards automated and autonomous logistics systems should be designed. This editorial lays a foundation by presenting application areas of automation and discussing the theoretical path towards autonomous logistics systems. The articles that follow provide highly practical insights into current research results on the automation and autonomization of informational and physical logistics processes.

Role of Industry 4.0 Practices in Supply Chain Resilience

“…These technologies are designed to learn and respond logically to massive amounts of data (28). Despite the fact that process automation is a major trend in logistics and supply chain management now and will become much more so in the near future, businesses are still apprehensive and face obstacles in implementing automated solutions (29). For example, Companies created "supplier risk towers," an autonomous supplier survey technique that allows for increased network awareness by calculating vulnerability scores at various levels (supplier, plant, and regional levels).…”

“…For example, Companies created "supplier risk towers," an autonomous supplier survey technique that allows for increased network awareness by calculating vulnerability scores at various levels (supplier, plant, and regional levels). According to the survey results, this automation solution is a very effective crisis management strategy (30). We have gathered the qualitative data while conducting interviews with industry professionals in the supply chain domain, which is presented in Table 2.…”

The impact of multiagent systems on autonomous production and supply chain networks: use cases, barriers and contributions to logistics network resilience

“…The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1359-8546.htm processes can evolve into autonomous processes, thereby bringing further value and enhanced resilience (Nitsche, 2021).…”

“…Among the plethora of challenges arising from the digitalization process, the automation of informational processes in LSCM is a core challenge, as acknowledged by both academic research (Dotoli et al , 2019; Viale and Zouari, 2020; Frederico et al , 2019; Nitsche et al , 2021) and industry practice (Junge et al , 2019; Kersten et al , 2017). When equipped with enhanced decision-making abilities and artificial intelligence (AI), automated processes can evolve into autonomous processes, thereby bringing further value and enhanced resilience (Nitsche, 2021).…”

The Effect of DRP Automation on Supply Chain Management in the Egyptian FMCG Industry

“…In fact, new technologies enable collecting and sharing precise data and information easier and faster, and supply chains are increasingly working in a globally connected context. Previous research demonstrated the importance of ERP systems in supply chain performance (Nitsche et al, 2021;Palanivel & Karkuzhali, 2018;Ullah et al, 2018;Izhar et al, 2018;Shatat & Udin, 2012). Most of the processes of supply chain management in all its departments depend on the use of ERP systems, aside from Excel spreadsheets.…”