Digital Transition of Supply Chain with Industry 4.0 Applications: A multi-case study
2022 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
Industrial Revolution and its history have always grown to make it easierfor human civilization to bring in efficiency. Innovation at its forefront hasonly been successful when an idea gets translated into the right productbefore mass production and commercialization. This requires, connectingwith the right stakeholders within the right time to form quick andtrustworthy relationships across the supply chain. Stakeholder managementhas always led to focusing on understanding how the interactions betweendifferent supply chain actors can be made more efficient. Digitalization hasshown some promise and has seen different stages of transformation insupply chains or any other applications. This thesis tries to understand thecurrent challenges faced within supplier or stakeholder management, withinthe process of product realization from Ideation to realization phases byconsidering what is seen as the main 4 supply chain actors involved. Fourstakeholder groups are derived, namely: i) Idea Owners, ii) InnovationSupporters, iii) Suppliers – Manufacturers/Developers and iv) FinancialSolvers. The presence of four different stakeholder groups warranted amultiple case study research design followed by a qualitative data collectionand analysis methodology. Semi-structured interviews were conductedwith 3 stakeholder groups, with at least 2 participants, to have sufficientdata for a Grounded theory approach, which followed the thematic analysisframework. The collected data were transcribed and analysed throughcoding, and generating 1st Order, and 2nd Order themes to generate threemain themes, which were Processing, Challenges and Potential Solutions.The challenges presented in the supply chain stakeholder managementprocess; Industry 4.0 solutions were debated to identify the most suitableapplication that can strongly resolve issues. The results analysed also led todiscussions as to the concept of Smart Contracts, which is a Blockchainbased application to add sustainable value across the supply chain processand the interaction between stakeholders in the process of Productrealization. The conclusions also highlight the importance of Industry 4.0applications in modernizing digital supply chains and adding sustainable valueby the concept of digital transformation by ensuring traceability across thesupply chain network. This thesis also establishes a suitable rapport toextend the applications and possibilities across the value chain, to enable ahigh degree of traceability and transparency for better product or servicelife cycle management functions.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022.
Series
SAMINT-MILI ; 22026
Keywords [en]
Digital Supply Chain, Digital Transformation, Industry 4.0, Blockchain, Smart Contracts, Innovation
National Category
Other Engineering and Technologies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-479806OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-479806DiVA, id: diva2:1680158
External cooperation
Manufacturing Guide AB
Educational program
Master Programme in Industrial Management and Innovation
Supervisors
Examiners
2022-07-042022-07-032022-07-04Bibliographically approved