What Prevents Sustainable Last-Mile Delivery in Industry 4.0? An Analysis and Decision Framework

Abstract

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) has revolutionized every sector in the last decade. A huge demand has been created in the supply chain for doorstep delivery services. However, many barriers are hindering the progression of I4.0 implementation to last-mile delivery (LMD) operations. In this study, these hindrances need investigation for improving customer satisfaction levels in LMD. The present research is focused on analyzing barriers to adopting I4.0 technologies for sustainable smart supply chains with a special focus on LMD operations. The published literature is critically investigated to determine the crucial factors which are acting as barriers to I4.0 implementation in LMD. The interpretive structure modeling (ISM) approach is adopted to evaluate different levels with their hierarchal order for analyzing the I4.0 barriers to digitalized logistic networks. Delivery capacity emerged as the major barrier to LMD operational networks due to insufficient technological and hardware support for I4.0 cyber-physical systems in logistics. Infrastructure for I4.0 emerged as the most basic requirement for the smart logistics management criteria for efficient LMD. The need to adopt I4.0 technologies for developing inventory hubs and warehouse management has evolved recently. There is scope for customized and specific case studies for the supply chain to achieve a higher level of sustainability. A conceptual framework for a smart and sustainable supply chain is presented and future directions for sustainable LMD are discussed.

Smart Logistics Management in the Age of Digital Transformation: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Economy-related barriers comprise investment costs and focus on short-term profitability (Sharma et al, 2022;Tran-Dang et al, 2022;Yan et al, 2022;Perotti et al, 2022;Affia and Aamer, 2021;Correa et al, 2020;Feng and Ye, 2021;Zoubek and Šimon, 2021;Zhang et al, 2019;Hannan et al, 2015;Karlı and Tanyaş, 2020;Čámská and Klečka, 2020;Susanty et al, 2022).…”

“…Sarkar et al (2022);Sgarbossa et al (2020);Susanty et al (2022). Economy-related barriersSharma et al (2022); Tran-Dang et al (2022); Yan et al (2022); Perotti et al (2022); Affia and Aamer (2021); Correa et al (2020); Feng and Ye (2021); Zoubek and Šimon (2021); Zhang et al (2019); H annan et al (2015); Çalışkan, (2020); Karlı and Tanyaş, (2020); Čámská and Klečka, (2020); Susanty et al (2022). Regulation-related barriers Tran-Dang et al (2022); Sarkar et al (2022); Zhang et al (2019); Çalışkan, (2020); Susanty et al (2022).…”

Application of industry 4.0 technologies in home delivery: A review

“…[27,28,29,30,31,32]. Although the impact of certain Industry 4.0 solutions on last-mile deliveries has been discussed in many studies, very few papers comprehensively consider the impacts of the development of Industry 4.0 technologies on this part of logistics and supply chains [33,34].…”

“…Table 7. Fields of application of management and control support systems in home delivery Field of application Technology Literature sources digitalization and monitoring of all activities in the logistics system (in integration with oher technologies) EDI [33] optimization of the total delivery time and the distance traveled (in integration with an algorithm for the optimization and planning of fleet usage and routes) ERP [81] crowd last mile delivery ITS [82] While many of these solutions have been implemented long before the advent of the Industry 4.0 concept, they are experiencing a resurgence in the Industry 4.0 environment, primarily due to their widespread availability and userfriendly applications facilitated by the cloud computing (CC) paradigm [9]. CC entails broad and convenient network access, enabling the utilization of shared computing resources (e.g.…”

Geographical Information System Modeling for Planning Internal Transportation in a Manufacturing Plant’s Outdoor Area

“…The literature review reveals several scientific papers on internal transportation inside production halls, workshops, and warehouses between workplaces and departments [2][3][4][5]. On the other hand, many scientific papers deal with route planning and optimization of transportation using public road traffic routes [6][7][8] and last-mile delivery [9,10]. However, the literature review reveals a lack of scientific research on the open/outdoor area yard transport between facilities of the same company.…”