Supply Chain 4.0 - A major challenge to survive in a context of high volatility
24/05/2023
Temps de lecture : 5min
For several years, markets have been evolving in a VUCA context: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. The world around us is experiencing increasingly dynamic changes: hyper-personalization of demand, interdependence of value chains, tensions on certain key resources (e.g., component crisis). Therefore, Supply Chain 4.0 emerges as the strategic response to this growing complexity.
Supply Chain 4.0 is the adaptation of the supply chain to the new demands for digitalization of businesses. It is an intelligent value chain that optimizes its end-to-end processes: transportation, procurement, subcontractors, production, warehouse…
Value chain decision-makers are supported by new digital technologies and artificial intelligence (IoT, data analysis, blockchain…).
However, the promises of Supply Chain 4.0 face certain barriers: rigid infrastructures to change, installation costs, integration of new technologies into employees’ daily routines…
Addressing these challenges is essential to achieve an efficient, optimized, and more sustainable supply chain 4.0.
Factory 4.0 for optimized production
This is the fourth industrial revolution that has given rise to supply chain 4.0. The growing need for competitiveness among companies has made supply chains and production processes increasingly automated.
This digital revolution disrupts traditional modes of production and redefines the face of modern factories. The 4.0 factory is a robotic factory that uses IoT (Internet of Things), artificial intelligence, and other technologies to optimize its production.
The robotization of factories is a major advancement towards the 4.0 factory. Robots are an extension of the operators who control them. They enable the execution of difficult and repetitive tasks at a low cost. Manufacturers benefit from a reduction in lead times thanks to their use. Sensors placed on the robots allow for real-time monitoring of production progress, machine status, and production rate. It becomes easier to identify sources of delay or under-optimization in the chain and make decisions accordingly: reallocation of load, maintenance, reorganization of flow…
These growing data flows enable the use of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and production flow management. The 4.0 factory optimizes its operations, improves its performance, and enhances collaboration throughout the production chain thanks to this data.
Tools such as Oplit allow for the management of production flows. Optimizing production operations is essential. Through load capacity simulations and scheduling in Oplit, the planner can make production assumptions, distribute load within the factory, schedule bottleneck positions, manage target stocks, and choose to call on subcontractors.
The integrated artificial intelligence in Oplit offers planners optimized production plans. This allows for adjustments to the scheduling of operations based on priorities such as resource availability, priorities, and customer preferences.
The multi-site view of factories and the overall view of each factory in Oplit offers a global perspective. It is a strategic industrial decision-making support tool. It provides real-time analytical data on overall performance: adherence rates, work-in-progress levels, delays, stagnation, lead time… This information helps decision-makers identify the constants and anomalies in their production processes and make timely decisions accordingly.
With a dynamic and interactive tool, in the era of 4.0, manufacturers can quickly and easily convey information about their orders to their customers.
Oplit's objective is to help manufacturers minimize lead time, optimize capacity (machines and operators), and save time for planners. Ultimately, Oplit contributes to the overall improvement of factory productivity and supports a more transparent supply chain.
Optimization of logistics
Logistics plays an essential role in the supply chain. Here, we address two areas: warehouse management and transportation management. These two sectors are significantly impacted by the 4.0 revolution.
WMS 4.0: Automated Warehouses
4.0 warehouses are fully automated through the use of new technologies: IoT, artificial intelligence, robotics… They have the following characteristics: intelligent management systems, automated storage systems, use of robotics, real-time monitoring of the warehouse's lifecycle.
The WMS 4.0, the warehouse management system 4.0, integrates all these new technologies. It represents a major advancement in warehouse management as it allows for the optimization of warehousing operations, inventory management, and order preparation.
Artificial intelligence helps to predict demand based on historical data and predictive models. This reduces the risks of stockouts or overstocking. It also allows for the optimization of storage areas and the routes of goods by mapping picking and replenishment routes according to operational constraints. Finally, it allows for adjustments of storage zones based on demand, priorities, and inventory levels.
Robots enable an increase in handling speed and thus enhance the productivity, flexibility, and overall responsiveness of the warehouse. Order-picking robots assist operators with tasks such as sorting or packaging. They allow for the automation of workflows, thereby ensuring greater productivity and safety within the warehouse. To name a few robots, there are pallet wrappers, AGV vehicles, autonomous mobile robots, and automated logistics sorters…
Repetitive tasks are performed faster with fewer errors thanks to artificial intelligence that optimizes operations and robotics that reduce processing times. The number of human errors decreases, resulting in increased inventory accuracy, reduced returns, and overall optimization of logistical operations. Operators gain in safety. The risk of accidents and injuries decreases. Real-time tracking systems for machines enable maintenance scheduling, detect safety issues, and resolve them quickly if they arise. The warehouse gains in flexibility and adaptability and can better cope with demand fluctuations.
Always with a concern for merchandise traceability, pallets can be identified using RFID chips. Instead of scanning a barcode to take inventory, a robot moves through the storage aisles. Its built-in reader can quickly identify pallets thanks to the chip's emitters. Thus, inventories are conducted more regularly, without errors, and the warehouse becomes more efficient in its logistical operations. All the new technologies for pallet identification enhance real-time tracking of the warehouse, manage stock, and even sometimes adjust prices based on stock levels.
The WMS 4.0 collects real-time data, which allows for tracking stocks, arrivals, orders, and, finally, the overall performance of the warehouse. It becomes easier to quickly identify sources of inefficiency, error, and delay and to make decisions accordingly.
By adopting the 4.0 approach, warehouses ensure they optimize their logistical operations and provide better customer satisfaction.
TMS 4.0
The 4.0 revolution also affects the transportation sector. The goal is to achieve ever faster and more reliable deliveries.
A TMS 4.0 allows for real-time tracking of deliveries through sensor systems integrated into the truck, container, wagon... They collect data on temperature, emissions, humidity, and location in real-time. This enables the carrier and the manager to track their shipments, ensure quality and compliance with standards, and notify customers in case of potential delays.
Artificial intelligence, integrated into the TMS 4.0, optimizes transport routes based on traffic, weather, cargo, operational constraints, fuel costs, and CO2 emissions. It also enables optimization of the load grouping capacity. This involves consolidating orders or grouping certain shipments into the same journey.
Finally, the TMS 4.0 assists decision-makers with data analysis. It provides real-time insights into transportation performance, costs, delivery times, and ultimately aids in decision-making. It helps to detect trends, identify bottlenecks, and optimize transportation operations.
Its advantages are as follows:
Operational efficiency gain: optimization of routes and tours
Cost reduction: fuel, labor
Improvement in customer satisfaction: fast and reliable delivery
Sustainable transportation: sustainable optimization of transportation activities
End-to-end Supply Chain: effective communication from supplier to customer
From the customer's point of view, a complete supply chain offers many advantages, such as increased visibility, fast and flexible delivery, customized products, better quality, and traceability. Ultimately, the entire customer experience is improved. By communicating effectively throughout the supply chain, companies can meet customer expectations and gain competitiveness.
Supply Chain 4.0 offers a comprehensive view of the value chain. It is a key asset in the strategy and decision-making of leaders. The interconnection of links, supplies, and subcontractors up to the customer, through factories and warehouses enables increased efficiency and competitiveness.
The company's headquarters plays a crucial role in driving the change towards 4.0. It helps maintain focus on transforming the group's culture. It connects stakeholders and systems to support the transition to a transparent and responsive value chain. When each link is integrated into the chain, they have a more comprehensive understanding of their own activity. On the other side, for the headquarters, this strategic alignment of all links offers visibility into overall performance.
Ultimately, it's the customer who gains in visibility and transparency. All of this contributes to building consumer trust in the company: better quality, more transparency, more traceability, in less time. The entire customer experience is improved. In this age of globalization and ecological transition, a fast, flexible supply chain committed to the sustainable development of its activity will be even more valued in the market.
Pour conclure
Supply Chain 4.0 opens new opportunities for companies to create more agile, intelligent, responsive, and connected supply chains.
Cutting-edge technologies such as IoT, artificial intelligence, and robotics improve operational efficiency, reduce production, storage, and transportation costs. More generally, this transformation allows companies to position themselves strategically in an increasingly competitive environment.
Supply Chain 4.0 is the future of logistics, and companies that adopt it will have a significant competitive advantage in the constantly evolving digital economy.
