Software-Defined Mobile Supply Chains: Rebalancing Resilience and Efficiency in Production Systems

Abstract

The miniaturization and modularization of production capacity brings with it not only greater agility and efficiency, but also increased flexibility in the form of mobility. This flexibility allows production capacity to be moved when and where it is most needed, generating new business opportunities, e.g., allowing modular units to be rented, leased, or shared. This flexibility, however, requires information and control systems that ensure a correct and secure flow of information between different stakeholders of the supply chain. Based on this, the present article characterizes the concept of software-defined mobile supply chains, presenting its main requirements, opportunities, and limitations. In addition, we present two case studies in which the proposed concept is evaluated in order to demonstrate its applicability. Here, due to the new optimization problems that arise when considering mobile facilities, special interest is given to the planning and control of the required operations, as well as the difficulties associated with the exchange of physical and intellectual assets between different stakeholders.

Fostering the Reuse of Manufacturing Resources for Resilient and Sustainable Supply Chains

“…In other words, modular resources are cost-effectively and efficiently adaptable to evolving requirements [8]; thus, they are reusable along their life cycle [9]. In the recent stream of literature on supply chain and reconfigurable manufacturing, Alarcon et al [11] defined the types of collaborative business models supporting "mobile supply chains", i.e., networks composed of modular and mobile reconfigurable units that can be cost-effectively and responsively moved to different locations, depending on requirements. They also claimed the need for detailed and empirical studies on the subject.…”

“…Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs), allowing responsive and cost-effective adaptability over time [6,7], offer great potential to enhance supply chains' resilience [8] and environmental sustainability [9,10]. In particular, the modular decomposition of reconfigurable machines makes them adaptable to evolving requirements [10,11] and reusable along the system's life cycle [12]. While research on RMSs at the system/shop floor level is grounded on extensive research since the mid-1990s, the research interest in RMSs as enablers of reconfigurable supply chains appears to be more recent [13][14][15][16].…”