Industry 4.0 Applications and System Solutions in Supply Chain Management

Dear Colleagues,

To have a significant transition from conventional supply chain and logistic systems to faster, more flexible, more granular, more accurate, and more efficient ones, a new technology leap can design, operate, and manage these systems efficiently and effectively through applications of the new innovative technologies and tools of Industry 4.0.  

Industry 4.0 represents a tremendous move in how supply chains are managed. Supply Chain Management (SCM) in the new era of Industry 4.0, SCM 4.0, represents a new stage of development in the supply chain networks. The integration, collaboration, and coordination of materials, information, and financial flows within its networks actors are primarily automated and permeated with digital technologies. This pattern is still not fully matured for improving researcher contributions on promises and impacts of Industry 4.0 on the performance and operations of the supply chains. In line with these circumstances, this Special Issue aims to investigate the linkage of the theory and the practice of designing and redesigning or optimising supply chain networks models in terms of sustainability and\or circular economy concepts employing new innovative digital technologies of Industry 4.0. Contributions may include supply chain networks design in terms of transportation, warehouses and their operations problems, theoretical and practical frameworks and methodologies, as well as the effective and efficient implementation of Industry 4.0 concepts, tools, and technologies and their integration with SCM and value chains practices for achieving the three bottom lines of sustainability (social, environmental, and economic benefits), as well as efficient resources and circular production economy.

Scientific research from different manufacturing and service industries concerning sustainable and digital supply chains is much appreciated to explore the enablers, opportunities, and capabilities of the abundant research associated with SCM 4.0 and lay an underpinning for future research on this important emerging topic.

Key words\Topics:

• automation in inter-organizational operations;
• digital twin—digital transformation;
• autonomous logistics business models;
• digital manufacturing\supply chains;
• granularization of the supply chain;
• digital waste;
• digital supply chain business models;
• sustainable production and consumption;
• circular economy systems;
• Industry 4.0 predictive maintenance;
• transportation business models;
• physical internet and traceability;
• SCM 4.0 framework;
• sustainable value chains;
• information sharing and transparency;
• cyber-physical systems;
• stochastic reverse/closed-loop supply chains

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Abbas Al-Refaie
Prof. Dr. Mohammed A. Almomani
Dr. Mohannad Jreissat
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.