ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major supply chain disruptions and unveiled the pressing need to improve supply chain resilience (SCRES). Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is a promising lever; however, its future in supply chain risk management (SCRM) is highly uncertain and largely unexplored. This paper aims to evaluate I4.0's potential to improve SCRES in a post-COVID-19 world. Based on current literature and multiple workshops, 13 future projections on potential I4.0 application areas in SCRM were developed. A two-round Delphi study among 64 SCRM experts with digital expertise was conducted to evaluate and discuss the projections regarding their probability of occurrence until 2030, their impact on SCRES, and their desirability. A fuzzy c-means algorithm was applied to cluster the projections based on the expert assessments. The expert evaluations led to three clusters on I4.0 application in SCRM: Four projections on generating data, increasing visibility, and building digital capabilities received considerable approval and are reliable to improve SCRES in 2030. Four projections enabling data sharing and processing were predominantly supported and demonstrated realization potential for 2030. Finally, five projections that require major supply network adaptations were deemed unlikely to improve SCRES in 2030. This paper answers several research calls by presenting empirical evidence on the pathway of I4.0 implementation in SCRM following the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it evaluates a holistic set of technologies and indicates prioritization potentials to achieve SCRES improvements.
ABSTRACT
Lately, there has been increased interest among researchers in studying the resilience of manufacturing supply chains. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused severe disruptions in global supply chains, which have led to calls for greater resilience in these supply chains. This study provides insights into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on supply chain resilience by conducting a multiple case study in three intertwined industries based on the dynamic capability view and the relational capability view as a theoretical underpinning. Data were collected during the pandemic in a two-stage interview process with 18 supply chain and production experts directly involved in crisis management. Internal and external documents supplemented the interviews. The results revealed seven higher-level capability groups for building resilience in intertwined supply chains during a pandemic outbreak: agility, collaboration, digital preparedness, flexible redundancy, human resource management, contingency planning, and transparency and visibility. Each capability group is supported by associated capabilities extracted from the data analysis. The findings obtained based on the results of the multiple case study are discussed, and implications for management and future research directions are presented.
ABSTRACT
Driven by pressures for sustainable development and disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturing companies in the 21st century are affected by two intertwined trends: Industry 4.0 and servitization. Digital servitization, which represents the transition from providing products to offering smart product-service systems, is currently seen as a black box by companies confronting them with major challenges. Current literature has not yet investigated which capabilities are required for the development and provision of smart PSSs. To address this gap, an exploratory multiple case study was performed using semi-structured interviews with 18 representatives of four manufacturing companies and six representatives of companies in a supporting role. A socio-technical systems perspective was adopted to cover the interconnectedness and complementarity of internal and external elements relevant for providing a smart PSS. The study identified 46 capabilities of digital servitization to offer and perform smart PSSs and systemically classified these within the dimensions of the socio-technical systems theory, thus providing companies with numerous insights into successful digital servitization. The results contribute to the practical and academic understanding of digital servitization by outlining capabilities to offer and perform smart PSSs and providing support for the use of socio-technical systems theory to frame these capabilities systematically.