A DSL For Logistics Clouds

Cloud is a new area of specialization in the computing world, and, as such, it has not been explicitly addressed by traditional programming languages and environments. Therefore, there is a need to create Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) for it. This paper presents such a DSL that targets logistics clouds, i.e. networked resources and systems of logistics organisations. The DSL is implemented on top of the functional concurrent language Erlang and its distributed data management system Mnesia. The paper presents features of the DSL that implement commonly occurring use cases in the logistics cloud such as message exchange, document sharing and notifications. We show how program features in this DSL map to the underlying Erlang/OTP runtime

Special Session on Industry 4.0

No abstract available

Information logistics and fog computing: The DITAS∗ approach

Data-intensive applications are usually developed based on Cloud resources whose service delivery model helps towards building reliable and scalable solutions. However, especially in the context of Internet of Things-based applications, Cloud Computing comes with some limitations as data, generated at the edge of the network, are processed at the core of the network producing security, privacy, and latency issues. On the other side, Fog Computing is emerging as an extension of Cloud Computing, where resources located at the edge of the network are used in combination with cloud services. The goal of this paper is to present the approach adopted in the recently started DITAS project: the design of a Cloud platform is proposed to optimize the development of data-intensive applications providing information logistics tools that are able to deliver information and computation resources at the right time, right place, with the right quality. Applications that will be developed with DITAS tools live in a Fog Computing environment, where data move from the cloud to the edge and vice versa to provide secure, reliable, and scalable solutions with excellent performance

Current Advancements of and Future Developments for Fourth Party Logistics in a Digital Future

This paper aims to analyze the potential future of the 4PL concept based on expert opinions with special regard to the influence of digitalization coming with a disruptive trans-formation of supply chains. Service arrangements, provider capabilities and benefits resulting from a 4PL partnership are compared in current and future configurations. The research follows an explorative mixed methods approach with semi structured interviews followed by an expert panel. This builds a basis for an online survey questionnaire to inquire on important future aspects for the 4PL concept by a sample of respondents from multinational companies. Our results show a clear trend away from simply organizing transportation and logistics activities towards the provision of an IT platform as well as further value-added service activities such as planning, analytics and monitoring. Along with this, IT capabilities appear to be an important differentiator for 4PL providers in the future. Moreover, relationships between 4PL providers and their clients become closer and more strategic, which leads to a customer valuing not only direct cost reductions but rather improvements resulting from optimized operations through superior analysis and planning functions

Towards critical event monitoring, detection and prediction for self-adaptive future Internet applications

The Future Internet (FI) will be composed of a multitude of diverse types of services that offer flexible, remote access to software features, content, computing resources, and middleware solutions through different cloud delivery models, such as IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. Ultimately, this means that loosely coupled Internet services will form a comprehensive base for developing value added applications in an agile way. Unlike traditional application development, which uses computing resources and software components under local administrative control, FI applications will thus strongly depend on third-party services. To maintain their quality of service, those applications therefore need to dynamically and autonomously adapt to an unprecedented level of changes that may occur during runtime. In this paper, we present our recent experiences on monitoring, detection, and prediction of critical events for both software services and multimedia applications. Based on these findings we introduce potential directions for future research on self-adaptive FI applications, bringing together those research directions

Risks associated with Logistics 4.0 and their minimization using Blockchain

Currently we are saying that we are at the dawn of the fourth revolution, which is marked by using cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things. This is marked as Industry 4.0 (I4.0). With Industry 4.0 is also closely linked concept Logistics 4.0. The highly dynamic and uncertain logistic markets and huge logistic networks require new methods, products and services. The concept of the Internet of Things and Services (IoT&S), Big Data/Data Mining (DM), cloud computing, 3D printing, Blockchain and cyber physical system (CPS) etc. seem to be the probable technical solution for that. However, associated risks hamper its implementation and lack a comprehensive overview. In response, the paper proposes a framework of risks in the context of Logistics 4.0. They are here economic risks, that are associated e.g. with high or false investments. From a social perspective, risks the job losses, are considered too. Additionally, risks can be associated with technical risks, e.g. technical integration, information technology (IT)-related risks such as data security, and legal and political risks, such as for instance unsolved legal clarity in terms of data possession. It is therefore necessary to know the potential risks in the implementation process.Web of Science101857

Approaching delivery as a service

This paper explores the new logistics business model of Delivery as a Service, a concept aiming at a more efficient, fast and customer-oriented practice, linking IT solution development, urban logistics operations, supply chain efficiency and new business models. Delivery as a Service (DaaS) is defined as a service-oriented delivery and business processes in line with customer expectations and needs in the on-demand economy. The approach of this paper is an industry report based on evidence collected in multiple exploratory European projects integrating ambitious and strategic findings on Internet of Things, urban planning, consolidation centres, transport optimisation, and clean vehicle use. It contributes to a future scenario of urban logistics business models

A framework for smart production-logistics systems based on CPS and industrial IoT

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has received increasing attention from both academia and industry. However, several challenges including excessively long waiting time and a serious waste of energy still exist in the IIoT-based integration between production and logistics in job shops. To address these challenges, a framework depicting the mechanism and methodology of smart production-logistics systems is proposed to implement intelligent modeling of key manufacturing resources and investigate self-organizing configuration mechanisms. A data-driven model based on analytical target cascading is developed to implement the self-organizing configuration. A case study based on a Chinese engine manufacturer is presented to validate the feasibility and evaluate the performance of the proposed framework and the developed method. The results show that the manufacturing time and the energy consumption are reduced and the computing time is reasonable. This paper potentially enables manufacturers to deploy IIoT-based applications and improve the efficiency of production-logistics systems

Integration of heterogeneous devices and communication models via the cloud in the constrained internet of things

As the Internet of Things continues to expand in the coming years, the need for services that span multiple IoT application domains will continue to increase in order to realize the efficiency gains promised by the IoT. Today, however, service developers looking to add value on top of existing IoT systems are faced with very heterogeneous devices and systems. These systems implement a wide variety of network connectivity options, protocols (proprietary or standards-based), and communication methods all of which are unknown to a service developer that is new to the IoT. Even within one IoT standard, a device typically has multiple options for communicating with others. In order to alleviate service developers from these concerns, this paper presents a cloud-based platform for integrating heterogeneous constrained IoT devices and communication models into services. Our evaluation shows that the impact of our approach on the operation of constrained devices is minimal while providing a tangible benefit in service integration of low-resource IoT devices. A proof of concept demonstrates the latter by means of a control and management dashboard for constrained devices that was implemented on top of the presented platform. The results of our work enable service developers to more easily implement and deploy services that span a wide variety of IoT application domains