Introduction to Intelligent Decision Support and Big Data for Logistics and Supply Chain Management Minitrack

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AGILE SOLUTIONS & DATA ANALITICS FOR LOGISTICS PROVIDERS BASED ON SIMULATION

The current advances are enabling the development of new solutions in data analytics and decision making in many fields; it is quite interesting to analyze the impact of this approach on logistics providers; this paper proposes examples of these challenges in this context as well as an example of a simulation based solution able to interconnect the different information sources and to fuse the data in order to analyze the logistics processes and support decisions. The proposed solution is based on web services and web application that are adopting the MSaaS concept (Modeling & Simulation as a Service) by using stochastic models

Determinants of using telematics systems in road transport companies

Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate the scope of using telematics systems based on GPS/GPRS in the road transport as well as to identify determinants of applying telematics tools to increase the quality in the supply chain. Design/Methodology/Approach: The contribution is based on a review of literature, preparing of a questionnaire-based survey directed to road transport companies and estimating logit models. Findings: It is submitted that there is an observable trend of extending telematics in the road transport. The following variables increase the probability of using telematics systems for punctuality checking in supply chains such as the number of employed persons, importance of telematics for getting new orders, managers’ viewpoints that telematics increases the quality of order processing and forecasting punctuality of loadings as well as speeds up decision-making processes. Practical Implications: Application of IT solutions including telematics in road transport is growing continuously. However, the awareness of managers about possible areas of applying them is still unsatisfactory. The paper reveals the determinants of application telematics in supply chain, which can be used to motivate and train managers to extend its scope in practice. Originality/Value: The study is based on primary data from road transport companies and related to the scope of application of telematics systems in operational management. A logit model is applied to evaluate the determinants of using IT systems in the road transport industry. It may be useful for practitioners and analytics of transport industry to broaden applications of IT solutions.peer-reviewe

Big Data Management in Maritime Transport

As maritime transport produces a large amount of data from various sources and in different formats, authors have analysed current applications of Big Data by researching global applications and experiences and by studying journal and conference articles. Big Data innovations in maritime transport (both cargo and passenger) are demonstrated, mainly in the fields of seaport operations, weather routing, monitoring/tracking and security. After the analysis, the authors have concluded that Big Data analyses can provide deep understanding of causalities and correlations in maritime transport, thus improving decision making. However, there exist major challenges of an efficient data collection and processing in maritime transport, such as technology challenges, challenges due to competitive conditions etc. Finally, the authors provide a future perspective of Big Data usage in maritime transport

Boosting Innovation for the Development of Smart-Service Factories of the Future: The Cases of the Federal State of Vorarlberg and its Neighbouring Regions

Factory of the Future is an initiative of the European Commission. It is highly narrative and describes the transformation of “ordinary” manufacturing operations and structures to fully-integrated cyber-physical manufacturing systems. Basing on case study research performed in the greater area of Vorarlberg, this article aims to explore how Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the field of manufacturing can evolve to smart-service Factories of the Future. It takes a mixed-methods approach with quantitative research (questionnaire) and qualitative case study interviews and provides findings about three main topics in service system engineering: “transformation of an operational need into a description of system performance parameters”, “integration of related technical parameters and assurance of compatibility of all physical, functional and program interfaces” and “integration of reliability, maintainability, safety, survivability, human and other such factors”. As it turns out, increased servitization measures, service management, service performance and service quality by development of service-oriented architectures (SOA) are key to evolve to a smart-service Factory of the Future

Examining potential benefits and challenges associated with the Internet of Things integration in supply chains

Purpose The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to have a huge impact on businesses and, especially, the way we think about supply chain management. However, there is still a paucity of studies on the impact of IoT adoption on supply chains and on different aspects of the business in general. The research aims to examine the perception of the academic community of the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) adoption in organizational supply chains with a view to verify potential key benefits and challenges existent in the literature. The research presents the impact on an organization along with the impact across its entire supply chain. Design/methodology/approach Data was collected through the use of an online survey and 87 participants completed the survey. Participants were mainly from the academic community and were university scholars based in different countries located in six continents. Participants were authors, or co-authors, of academic papers published in the Decision Science Institute 2015 and 2016 annual conference proceedings, the 21st International Symposium of Sustainable Transport and Supply Chain Innovations, the Supply Chain Management : An International Journal 2016 issues, and the Operations and Supply Chain Management : an International Journal 2016 issues. Findings We were able to confirm the significance of some of the examined potential benefits to individual organizations and their entire supply chains. However, the study identified other potential benefits that were not seen as a direct impact of IoT adoption. Most of the examined potential benefits were found to contribute to a number of critical success factors for implementing successful supply chain management. We were also able to confirm that some of the examined potential challenges were still perceived as key hinders to IoT adoption but examined potential challenges were not seen as hurdles to IoT adoption. Originality/value To our best knowledge, this is the first study of its kind. Although some literature attempted to provide an overview about the IoT management, no study has specifically explored potential benefits and challenges related to the adoption of IoT in supply chains and ranked them based on their significance. The results can be beneficial to; academic scholars interested in the researched topic, business professionals, organizations within different sectors, and any other party interested in understanding more about the impact of adopting IoT on supply chain management