RIGA TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology

Institute of Information Technology

Vishwas Jagadeeswarachar
Student of the academic master study programme „Logistics and Supply Chain Management”
(student ID 191ADM090)

EXPLORATIVE ANALYSIS OF SUPPLY

CHAIN 4.0 GLOBAL AND REGIONAL
DEVELOPMENT TRENDS

Master Thesis

Scientific supervisor from

Riga Technical University
Dr.sc.ing., asoc. professor
A. Lektauers

Riga 2021
 THESIS ACCOMPLISHMENT AND EVALUATION

The Master Thesis is developed in the Institute of Information Technology.

I certify with my signature that all information sources used are included in the list of
Bibliography and the thesis is original.

The author of the thesis:

stud. Vishwas J...………………………........…………………………......
(signature, date)

The master thesis is recommended for defence:

Scientific supervisor:
Dr.sc.ing., Asoc. prof. A.Lektauers…................……………………………...
(signature, date)

The thesis is approved for defence:

Director of Academic master’s study programme

„Master in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at RTU”

Dr.sc.ing., Asoc. prof. A.Romanovs...............…………………………………...

(signature, date)

The Master thesis was defended at the meeting of the graduation examination commission of

the Institute of Information Technology in

……... …………….....…evaluated with the mark ( )….....……….………..

(year, month, date)

The secretary of the graduation examination commission of the Institute of Information

Technology:

…….....................……….…
(surname
 Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
1 ANALYSIS...................................................................................................................................6
1.1 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT A FRAMEWORK AND UNDERSTANDING.............6
1.2 BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH........................................................................................6
1.3 BIG DATA TECHNOLOGIES RESEARCH ACTIVITIES....................................................8
1.4 DETECTIONS ON TRADITIONAL SUPPLY CHAIN MODELS.........................................8
References......................................................................................................................................13
 INTRODUCTION

Supply chain sustainability (SCS) in the days of Industry 4.0 data is a primary area of
examination. However, there are no substructures and extensive examinations that classify the
various types of research and test the general methods in this area of research. This paper
reviews the literature on feasibility, A total of 80 plus articles published in the past decade were
examined and the top contributing writers, countries, and key research topics were evaluated.
Additionally, the most famous works based on citations and PageRank were taken into
consideration and compared. Finally, six research categories were identified in which scholars
could be motivated to implement Big Data and Industry 4.0 research on SCS. This thesis adds on
to the subject on SCS in the era of Industry 4.0 by examining the milestones facing current
research but also, more importantly, by identifying and proposing research categories and future
research directions

Sustainable development is explained as evolving that meets the requirements of the

present without compromising the capacity of future generations to meet their own requirements,
and it has become a primary strategic focus worldwide. Sustainable development needs the
evolving and integration of economic, social, cultural, political, and ecological elements in
commitment-making, in a focus to balance economic development, social development, and
environmental protection. Consequently, most huge companies and important small and
medium-sized enterprises have been integrating policies and actions focused at upgrading their
sustainability and the sustainability of their supply chains (SCs). This consideration of
sustainability as a purpose in supply chain management, in what is also called as Sustainable
Supply Chain Management (SSCM), is because of three factors:
(1) the stress of stakeholders (such as investors, shareholders, customers, and nonprofits) to
maximize the enormous environmental results that are being generated (deterioration of the
environment, scarcity of resources, increase in waste generated, increased pollution).
(2) bring out brand value that serves as a variusiating element against competitors.
(3) high restrictive regulations
We have listed Three Goals of Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management is a crucial business component for any company that markets
products. Eventually, the supply chain exists to explain the creation of products to meet
consumer demand. It hails from the raw material all the way to the finished good to reach the
consumer. But how is this whole process done, and why is it crucial to do so?

Here are the three main goals, explained.

● Upgrading Efficiency
● Upgrading Quality
● Upgrading Stability

Summary

● Supply chain management concentrates on the process behind how goods are
manufactured, delivered, and delivered to the consumer.
● Supply chain management focuses on how to reduce waste wherever possible.
● Supply chain management can be used to improve the experience and quality of the
customer.
● Supply chain management focus for stability for longer duration of the overall
supply chain
 1. ANALYSIS

1.1 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT A FRAMEWORK AND UNDERSTANDING

The subject of supply chain management (SCM) is difficult to understand as it

involves many various flows of primary activities, substances, functions, and role-players.
The literature is distributed across various functions, varies in scope, and is often limited
to specified elements within SCM. This article concentrates on providing a literature overview of
SCM. It is discussed with the aim of a freshly developed substructure of knowing that offers a
statistical representation of the term. It unites and condenses various components within
SCM and shows the relationship between them. The substructure was discovered by
identifying the primary themes in the definitions for SCM, evaluating existing bifurcation
and substructures in SCM and analyzing substructures in other disciplines. The Result of this
article can be used as a material to know and orientate researchers and practitioners in the
field.

1.2 BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH

Agri-food 4.0 and other Technologies a State of the Art The agricultural sector has been
very much active in digital innovation for many years already. Eventually the proceedings in
Precision Agriculture, remote sensing, robots, farm management information systems, and
(agronomic) solution making systems have made the way for a wider technical transformation in
agriculture and food. Modern developments, namely big data, Internet of Things, Cloud
Computing, Blockchain, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, permit for the joining of so far
isolated lines of development into smart, preserved systems of systems. Those modern
technologies will let agriculture grow in a data-driven, intelligent, outdated and autonomous
connected system of things. The procedures of each agricultural process will be automatically
joined in the food chain through the systematically active technologies up to the divided
consumer. The 4th industrial revolution is now targeting agriculture.
The digital platform (DP) idea emerged as a contribution of heterogeneous mainly open
software answers for ecosystem building. India promotes the discovery of digital platforms for
several application domains as manufacturing and agriculture. As a concentration of technology
gives, research on DP examines various problems such as software engineering, process
simulation and development, features analysis, resource performance, test algorithms or
performance control. The technological areas allow access to the different stakeholders and
enable deployment capabilities for IT solutions. These provisions are given by service providers
or invented by software engineers. Agricultural Data management and damage is the central
node between digital transformation capabilities and the agriculture concerns.
The primary research problems concern the consolidation of data deposits with open data
(weather, maps, etc.), governance data (policies, local regulation, etc.) and domain-oriented data
from consumers. Data type is very good (quality land, location, climate, climate results, etc.) and
data quantity is continually expanding by the combination of sensors and IoT platforms in
agriculture. Data engineering works issues pattern definition, classification algorithms,
correlation analysis, etc. All the available technologies give engineering capabilities for
agricultural data. The commissioning of these techniques will handle farmers data, will combine
new data repositories from external end users, will create data to knowledge and gives decision
support systems. The data genuinely enabler with necessary sharing policies will accelerate data
ingestion and ejection processes.

1.3 BIG DATA TECHNOLOGIES RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

Big Data gives relevant results in various application domains (healthcare, marketing,
maritime, urban, manufacturing, etc.). The Big Data Value Association (BDVA) gives the
application of big data in different groups. The Big Data India project gives data semantic,
analytics, integration, and exploitation solutions as well as a software stack for various
agriculture procedures. As another research methodology problem, we have found tools and
technology development, analytic methods, and services, combining methods, changing
algorithms results and data processing techniques, data management and storage management,
etc. The integration of Big Data technologies in Agri-Food projects plays a prominent role in the
extension of farmers data to begin with the new knowledge; the investigation of creative
implications and processes by IT suppliers and software developers as well as the extended and
the inhabiting of ICT and Factories of the Future (FoF) related Big Data examines and develops
patterns for agriculture. There are different Big Data Repositories that give as a brief, nowadays,
the access and the exploitation to Agri-Food data.

1.4 DETECTIONS ON TRADITIONAL SUPPLY CHAIN MODELS

Various SCM models have historically been explained by the most important scholars in
this field. As previous work, we can explain the paper by Stevens (1989), who started one of the
first schemes that helps in understanding of the materials and information that flow through the
main topics of the physical distribution channel such as suppliers, warehouses, factories,
distribution warehouses and down to the final stage reaching customers.

Other various models that have researched and explained essential SCM elements are the
research works by Cooper et al. (1997) and those presently studied by Oettmeier and Hofmann
(2016), who have explained three general constructs: the SCMCs known as the managerial
methods by which business processes are integrated and managed across the SC, e.g., work and
organizational structures, information and communication structures; the Supply Chain
Management Processes (SCMPs), referring to the activities that produce a specific value output
to the customer, e.g., the customer and supplier relationship, demand and manufacturing flow
management; and the Supply Chain Network Structures (SCNS), described as the member firms
and the links between those firms, e.g., upstream suppliers (tiers), services-party logistics and
customers.

Based on these three generic constructs, a qualitative meta-analysis was discovered for
the 18 selected models, by means of the previously defined search protocol. The main
methodology of this literature review is an exhaustive reading of each work, to identify the
postulated constructs, relying on the three essential elements within the SC substructure:
SCMCs, SCMPs and SCNS. Subsequently, the accuracy and contributions of each of the
analyzed research papers and the similarities between them were identified.
 It is worth to mention that Supply Chain Flows (SCFs) are considered an important
construct among the SCM elements in this research paper, due to the relevant interconnection
and systematic interaction provided through them and between each actor in the SCNS, e.g.,
products (goods) and services, information, knowledge and financial and return flows. The
research works discovered by Lambert et al. (1998), Croxton et al. (2001), Lambert and
Schwieterman (2012) and Lambert (2014) contain very similar SCM models. The SCMPs
“return management” is mentioned by few authors. This might be since issues regarding
sustainability, reverse logistics, reverse flows and reverse SC have only become of greater
concern in the last 10 years as a result of stricter environmental regulations by local governments
and increasing consumer awareness of environmental issues (Ilgin and Gupta, 2011; Seuring and
Gold, 2012).

Another important contribution is the exploration of the actors or SCNS in the various
conceptual models included in this study. One aspect that stood out is the fact that the conceptual
models defined from 2000 to 2014 agreed on the definition of the following components: tiers or
suppliers of suppliers, focal companies (manufacturing or services), wholesalers or distributors,
retailers, and final customers (Harryson and van Hoek, 2008; Jacobs et al., 2008; Krajewski et
al., 2013). Some other elements and constructs for the SCNS, defined by the authors of the
reviewed papers, are documented.

The incorporation of these new concepts has enriched the adoption of the newly proposed
structures currently functioning in the emerging SCs. Some examples are networks where
multiple chains are intertwined and more widely practiced in the industry, and which are now
evolving and represent great challenges, such as those mentioned by Lim et al. (2018):
operational challenges in executing last-mile operations; the intersection between last-mile
operations and sharing economy models; data harmonization and analytics; and moving from
prescriptive to predictive last-mile distribution designs (Ivanov et al., 2018).

It is worth emphasizing the evident changes in communication and movement along the
physical channels of supply and the distribution chain in the SCNS; currently, they have been
evolving into complex digital channels, transforming goods, adding processes and services, and
generating great synergy between various SCs, thus obtaining fast responses and constant flows.
This has previously been pictured as a pipeline, showing directional SCFs, services, financial
resources, the information associated with these flows and the informational flows of demands
and forecasts (Mentzer et al., 2001). Therefore, a scenario has been reached where, as mentioned
by Chopra et al. (2016), “most supply chains are, in fact, networks.”

Consequently, the coordination of the flows, moving within and through the interested
companies in the networks into the SCNS has been relevant in achieving a competitive
advantage and productivity, both for individual companies in the SC, as well as for the members
of the SC collectively (Ballou, 2004).

The findings on the various types of flows that have been proposed and discovered in.
We can highlight the construct called “virtual supply chain” and “virtual value creation,”
proposed by Graham and Hardaker (2000). The first construct is a starting point for the present
research, because surrounding this construct it is possible to observe all those key components of
the emerging and current digital SC; the second explains the concept of meaning which, thanks
to the flow of information and the activities generated such as: information collection,
systematization, selection, processing, distribution, exchange, analysis and offering, a virtual SC
has emerged, developing varius activities in the marketplace and operating completely
independently of the physical value chain.

Another finding, regarding the SCFs observed within the examined models, is the great
impact that the development of information and communication technology has generated in the
management and integrated control of information, finances, risks, and merchandise flows, thus
making possible a new range of production systems and distributions. The growth in information
technology and the increase in global business competition have also forced organizations to find
new ways of doing business (Almajali et al., 2016). These new ways of doing business can only
be carried out by using an elementary factor in organizations: the SCMs. Therefore, the analysis
shown refers to the management methods by which all SCMPs are integrated and managed
throughout the SC.

Through validation with management experts, Lambert (2014) mentioned two types of
SCMCs: structural management components and behavioral management components. Based on
the research work discovered by this author, these components have been a primary reference for
the validation and comparison of the conceptual models of SCs in the literature review explored
in this paper.

The authors of the 18 examined papers have coincided in more than five of the ten
general SCMCs. This represents and validates these elements as a fundamental part of the
management of activities that add value throughout the SCs and SC networks. Furthermore,
within the research papers analyzed, other valuable concepts have been detected; outstanding
examples include: approaches in SC flexibility (Duclos et al., 2003; Martínez Sánchez and Pérez
Pérez, 2005); in SC integration (Stevens, 1989; Cooper et al., 1997; Mentzer et al., 2001; Zhang
et al., 2015); in definition and validation of SC constructs (Cooper et al., 1997; Lambert et al.,
1998; Lambert and Stock, 2000; Chen and Paulraj, 2004; Lambert and Schwieterman, 2012;
Lambert, 2014); in SC evolution (Oettmeier and Hofmann, 2016) and in SC life cycles
(MacCarthy et al., 2016; Stevens and Johnson, 2016).

This exploration has also allowed us to recognize that only Graham and Hardaker (2000),
Stevens and Johnson (2016) and Hofmann and Rüsch (2017) presented, through their models, the
most significant approach in the construction of components and in the definition of the elements
that are currently key in the operation of Global Integrated SCs, SC clusters and goal directed
networked SCs, during the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The literature review also showed that there are four works that link a conceptual model
approach to the internet and digitalization (Alcácer and Cruz-Machado, 2019; Ardito, Petruzzelli,
Panniello and Garavelli, 2018; Bag et al., 2018; Büyüközkan and Göçer, 2018; Graham and
Hardaker, 2000; Hofmann and Rüsch, 2017; Muhuri et al., 2019; Tu, 2018), thus presenting an
initial and incipient incorporation of constructs and elements for Industry 4.0 within the essential
components of SCM. The research workdiscovered by Büyüközkan and Göçer (2018), showed a
literature review for DSCs and their enablers and proposed a substructure, but the suggested
components of SCM are not supported by the basic literature review and constructs of the
discipline. Otherwise, the further decomposition of a digital SC model is not included, and it is
not possible to observe the consolidation of each element as a construct or as an integrated part
of the main elements of a SC, such as a digital and physical: SCNS, SCMCs, SCMPs and SCFs,
nor a precise identification of the main concept enablers and features of Industry 4.0 integrating
the core management of the digitalized SCs.

According to the literature review research carried out on traditional SC models, we

identified the main characteristics detected within various substructures presented over the years,
which undoubtedly reflect the interaction between their components, processes, structures and
flows Therefore, it is pertinent to present the findings and discussions for the RQ1.

The evolution of the 18 presented models shows the remarkable progress and
development of the components and constructs that have been incorporated into the SCM over
the years. However, this literature review has revealed the absence of a strong model that
contains: the basic theoretical concepts and addresses the incorporation of digital components in
the functioning of the new SCs, including all these Industry 4.0 elements and constructs within
the SCNSs (flows, processes, and management components).

Sufficient evidence has not been found of any conceptual model or construct that exhibits
the incorporation of all the emerging elements and constructs inherent in the new and current
functioning of the “Global Supply Chains” or “Digital Supply Chain Networks,” as named by
some authors and as Straub et al. (2004), Jayaram (2016), Kim and Chai (2017) and Klötzer and
Pflaum (2017). This finding can be supported by the work done by Barata et al. (2018), Ben-
Daya et al. (2017) and (Bibby and Dehe, 2018), who, through a review of the current literature
on Industry 4.0 applications in SCM, identify: a lack of solid substructures, models or roadmaps
that address SC in an Industry 4.0 environment with the implementation of new concepts, and
Industry 4.0 features and technologies in SCM.

Stemming from this detected opportunity, this research study proposes the construction of
a new conceptual model that allows the new and digital SCs to be represented, depicting them as
agile, flexible, integral, inter-coordinated, interconnected and interacting synergistically for the
creation of value in real time by means of characterizing and stratifying the various actors,
elements and technology application trends that support digitization and Industry 4.0 within the
main SCM constructs.
 Having thus summarized the evidence to answer the above question for this research
project, the following section describes a summary of the literature review of the technology
trends and concepts related to the emerging terms of Industry 4.0 in the SCM. Later, the
outstanding components of SCs are identified and described for the proposed DSC model for
Industry 4.0.

References

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