Reviewing literature on digitalization, business model innovation, and sustainable industry : past achievements and future promises

Digitalization is revolutionizing the way business is conducted within industrial value chains through the use of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, intensive data exchange and predictive analytics. However, technological application on its own is not enough; profiting from digitalization requires business model innovation such as making the transition to advanced service business models. Yet, many research gaps remain in analyzing how industrial companies can leverage digitalization to transform their business models to achieve sustainability benefits. Specifically, challenges related to value creation, value delivery, and value capture components of business model innovation need further understanding as well as how alignment of these components drive sustainable industry initiatives. Thus, this special issue editorial attempts to take stock of the emerging research field through a literature review and providing a synthesis of special issue contributions. In doing so, we contribute by developing a framework that communicates and sets the direction for future research by linking digitalization, business model innovation, and sustainability in industrial settings.fi=vertaisarvioimaton|en=nonPeerReviewed

Semantic Asset Administration Shells in Industry 4.0: A Survey

The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is a fundamental concept in the Reference Architecture Model for Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0), that provides a virtual and digital representation of all information and functions of a physical asset in a manufacturing environment. Recently, Semantic AASs have emerged that add knowledge representation formalisms to enhance the digital representation of physical assets. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of the scientific contributions to Semantic AASs that model the Information and Communication Layer within RAMI 4.0, and summarise and demonstrate their structure, communication, functionalities, and use cases. We also highlight the challenges of future development of Semantic AASs

Contextual impacts on industrial processes brought by the digital transformation of manufacturing: a systematic review

The digital transformation of manufacturing (a phenomenon also known as "Industry 4.0" or "Smart Manufacturing") is finding a growing interest both at practitioner and academic levels, but is still in its infancy and needs deeper investigation. Even though current and potential advantages of digital manufacturing are remarkable, in terms of improved efficiency, sustainability, customization, and flexibility, only a limited number of companies has already developed ad hoc strategies necessary to achieve a superior performance. Through a systematic review, this study aims at assessing the current state of the art of the academic literature regarding the paradigm shift occurring in the manufacturing settings, in order to provide definitions as well as point out recurring patterns and gaps to be addressed by future research. For the literature search, the most representative keywords, strict criteria, and classification schemes based on authoritative reference studies were used. The final sample of 156 primary publications was analyzed through a systematic coding process to identify theoretical and methodological approaches, together with other significant elements. This analysis allowed a mapping of the literature based on clusters of critical themes to synthesize the developments of different research streams and provide the most representative picture of its current state. Research areas, insights, and gaps resulting from this analysis contributed to create a schematic research agenda, which clearly indicates the space for future evolutions of the state of knowledge in this field

Developing distributed manufacturing strategies from the perspective of a product-process matrix

In today’s highly competitive global business landscape, customers demand personalised products and responsive distribution systems, hence fuelling the concept of Distributed Manufacturing (DM) as a paradigm that suggests the geographical distribution of manufacturing systems adjacent to the markets to enable ‘production on demand’. To this end, the objective of this research is to explore the DM concept to inform firms about the dynamically changing manufacturing environment, along with the emerging opportunities, and support business stakeholders in implementing DM-oriented strategies to achieve digitalisation, personalisation, and localisation. More specifically, the present research builds upon the Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT) and conducts semi-structured interviews with a panel of 16 experts from the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, Automotive, and Engineering industries to develop 12 exploratory industry cases. Our analysis highlights that companies can adopt three strategies to implement DM and realise shorter lead times and personalised product offerings, namely: (i) small-scale DM; (ii) in-house decoupled manufacturing; and (iii) outsourced decoupled manufacturing. However, the economic viability of the DM concept is identified as a significant barrier to relinquish the traditional centralised economies-of-scale. This research contributes by applying the DCT to the DM concept to advocate the viability and sustainability of manufacturing systems in the era of Industry 4.0. Pertaining to the originality of this research, limited work is available on the applicability of DM in industries, from the DCT perspective, to accomplish competitive advantages in the dynamic environment of manufacturing.his research has received funding from the EPSRC under Reference No. EP/K02888X/1, Project Title: “Engineering Driven Sustainable Supply Networks – A UK/India Collaborative Study”

Engineering methods and tools for cyber–physical automation systems

Much has been published about potential benefits of the adoption of cyber–physical systems (CPSs) in manufacturing industry. However, less has been said about how such automation systems might be effectively configured and supported through their lifecycles and how application modeling, visualization, and reuse of such systems might be best achieved. It is vitally important to be able to incorporate support for engineering best practice while at the same time exploiting the potential that CPS has to offer in an automation systems setting. This paper considers the industrial context for the engineering of CPS. It reviews engineering approaches that have been proposed or adopted to date including Industry 4.0 and provides examples of engineering methods and tools that are currently available. The paper then focuses on the CPS engineering toolset being developed by the Automation Systems Group (ASG) in the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), University of Warwick, Coventry, U.K. and explains via an industrial case study how such a component-based engineering toolset can support an integrated approach to the virtual and physical engineering of automation systems through their lifecycle via a method that enables multiple vendors' equipment to be effectively integrated and provides support for the specification, validation, and use of such systems across the supply chain, e.g., between end users and system integrators

Digital technologies catalyzing business model innovation in supply chain management - the case of parcel lockers as a solution for improving sustainable city mobility

The rise of information technologies pushes companies into digital restructuring. Organizations integrating emerging technologies into their supply chains can boost efficiency by streamlining processes and making more informed decisions using predictive analytics. This research dis-cusses major enablers for digital transformation and presents the application of those along different parts of a digital supply chain, while focusing on technical characteristics, implementations, and impact on organizational capabilities and strategies. The parcel lockers are a technology that sustains and improves last-mile delivery. By combining it with night-time delivery improves the City's Sustainable Mobility and, therefore, reduces the local emissions and city congestion

Advanced technologies and international business : A multidisciplinary analysis of the literature

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The AuthorsAdvanced digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things, blockchain, big data analytics and augmented reality, are gradually transforming the way multinational firms do business. Due to the extent of this transformation many scholars argue that the integration of these technologies marks the commencement of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). However, the question how these advanced technologies impact international business activities needs further attention. To this end, we adopt a multidisciplinary approach to review the related literature in international business (IB), general management, information systems, and operations research. We include the two latter fields, because advanced technologies have received more attention in these bodies of literature. Based on our analysis, we discuss the implications of these technologies for international business. Further, we highlight the drivers of technology utilisation by multinational firms and likely outcomes. We also provide future research avenues.Peer reviewe