Introduction to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Supply Chain

Recent technological innovations in the means of production, product development and distribution materials are promoting big changes in the productive sector. This set of innovations is called Industry 4.0. The purpose of this article is to study the main aspects of Industry 4.0 and analyze their impact on the means of production of manufactured goods and the supply chain. Therefore, it uses bibliographic references relating to the fourth industrial revolution (SCHWAB, 2009), Industry 4.0 (KOCH, 2014) and production management (Slack, 2009). Considerations achieved in this study will form the basis for future research on the developments of new technologies in society.

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Blockchain-Based Model to Improve the Performance of the Next-Generation Digital Supply Chain

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su131810008 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (18) ◽

pp. 10008

Author(s):

Sumit Kumar Rana ◽

Hee-Cheol Kim ◽

Subhendu Kumar Pani ◽

Sanjeev Kumar Rana ◽

Moon-Il Joo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Supply Chain ◽

Industrial Revolution ◽

Emerging Technologies ◽

Chain Process ◽

Next Generation ◽

Improve Performance ◽

Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽

Blockchain Technology ◽

Proposed Model ◽

Supply Chain Process

In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, all aspects of the industrial domain are being affected by emerging technologies. Digitalization of every process is taking place or under process. One of the most important components common to every domain is the supply chain process. Organizations employ a digital supply chain to track the delivery of their products or materials. The digital supply chain is still suffering from a few issues such as no provenance, less transparency, and a trust issue. Blockchain technology, one of the emerging technologies, can be integrated with the supply chain to deal with the existing issues and to improve its performance. In this paper, a model is proposed to integrate blockchain technology with the supply chain to improve performance. The proposed model uses the combination of the Ethereum blockchain and the interplanetary file system to maintain the traceability, transparency, and trustworthiness of the supply chain.

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A Review of 4IR/5IR Enabling Technologies and Their Linkage to Manufacturing Supply Chain

Technologies ◽

10.3390/technologies9040077 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 77

Author(s):

Mokesioluwa Fanoro ◽

Mladen Božanić ◽

Saurabh Sinha

Keyword(s):

Supply Chain ◽

Industrial Revolution ◽

Smart Manufacturing ◽

Enabling Technology ◽

Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽

Enabling Technologies ◽

Theoretical Synthesis ◽

Manufacturing Supply Chain ◽

Traditional Manufacturing ◽

Manufacturing Technologies

Over the last decade, manufacturing processes have undergone significant change. Most factory activities have been transformed through a set of features built into a smart manufacturing framework. The tools brought to bear by the fourth industrial revolution are critical enablers of such change and progress. This review article describes the series of industrial revolutions and explores traditional manufacturing before presenting various enabling technologies. Insights are offered regarding traditional manufacturing lines where some enabling technologies have been included. The manufacturing supply chain is envisaged as enhancing the enabling technologies of Industry 4.0 through their integration. A systematic literature review is undertaken to evaluate each enabling technology and the manufacturing supply chain and to provide some theoretical synthesis. Similarly, obstacles are listed that must be overcome before a complete shift to smart manufacturing is possible. A brief discussion maps out how the fourth industrial revolution has led to novel manufacturing technologies. Likewise, a review of the fifth industrial revolution is given, and the justification for this development is presented.

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