Decision Making in Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Recent Research Advances in the Context of Industry 4.0

Dear Colleagues,

Digitization, automation, and sustainability are already shaping a new era for supply chains, resulting in structural changes in their design and operation as well as in the organizational mindset and architecture of the firms involved, while creating new business models. The introduction and integration of Industry 4.0 technologies such as artificial intelligence, the analysis of big data, the Internet of Things, cloud services, cyber-physical systems, etc., develops a new wider ecosystem, named Supply Chain 4.0, which constitutes of a more diversified and multidirectional group of suppliers, customers, and firms with the intense participation of Industry 4.0 solutions providers. This new context facilitates the interrelation and cooperation of all parties and enables the faster, more flexible, and more efficient material, information, and financial flow. Simultaneously, the increasing needs of, interest in, and commitments to environmental and social issues (climate crisis, energy security, energy poverty, environmental justice, social responsibility, etc.), as well as the promotion of renewable energy, prescribe new requirements for designing sustainable supply chain systems. Thus, Supply Chain 4.0 becomes a highly complicated and multifaceted superstructure in which each actor has to preserve and claim a better position in a globalized and increasingly competitive market in which customer demand volatility and granularity is a rather common situation. Developing and incorporating a robust and reliable decision-making process is the condition sine qua non to effectively manage a supply chain system and boost business profitability and sustainability, create a distinctive value, and achieve a competitive advantage under a multiplicity of continuously evolving technological, economic, legislative, environmental, and social conditions.

The objective of this Special Issue is to host papers which present and analyze new methods and state-of-the-art applications concerning decision-making in supply chain management in the inter-relating contexts of Industry 4.0 and sustainability. To this end, we invite studies concerning the integration process of new technologies and the implementation of the life cycle analysis concept on developing supply chains for goods, energy, the agricultural sector, etc.

In this Special Issue, original research articles, reviews, and case studies are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Supply chain management in the era of digital transformation;
• Green supply chain management;
• Renewable energy value chains;
• Circular supply chain management;
• Big data and predictive analytics to support supply chains;
• Internet of Things applications;
• Simulation and digital twins in supply chains;
• Single- and multi-objective optimization techniques and applications;
• Multi-criteria decision-making in supply chain management;
• Risk management in supply chains;
• Innovative decision support systems for supply chain management.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

References:

1. Hofmann, E., Sternberg, H., Chen, H., Pflaum, A. and Prockl, G. (2019). Supply chain management and Industry 4.0: conducting research in the digital age, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 49(10): 945-55. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-11-2019-399.
2. Ketchen, D.J., Jr., Crook, T.R. and Craighead, C.W. (2014). From Supply Chains to Supply Ecosystems: Implications for Strategic Sourcing Research and Practice. Journal of Business Logistics, 35: 165-171. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbl.12057.
3. Rosin, F., Forget, P., Lamouri, S. and Pellerin, R. (2022). Enhancing the Decision-Making Process through Industry 4.0 Technologies, Sustainability, 14(1): 461. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010461.
4. Alicke, K., Rachor, J. and Seyfert, A., (2016), Supply Chain 4.0 – the next-generation digital supply chain, McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/supply-chain-40--the-next-generation-digital-supply-chain.
5. Tjahjono, B., Esplugues, C., Ares, E. and Pelaez G. (2017). What does Industry 4.0 mean to Supply Chain?, Procedia Manufacturing, 13: 1175-1182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2017.09.191.

Dr. Paraskevas Georgiou
Guest Editor

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• supply chain management
• green supply chain management
• energy value chains
• renewable energy value chain
• ecofriendly supply chains
• decision making
• decision support systems
• big data
• Industry 4.0
• supply chain 4.0
• logistics
• digital transformation