Sustainable supply chain management in the digitalisation era: The impact of Automated Guided Vehicles

Abstract

Internationalization of markets and climate change introduce multifaceted challenges for modern supply chain (SC) management in the today's digitalisation era. On the other hand, Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) systems have reached an age of maturity that allows for their utilization towards tackling dynamic market conditions and aligning SC management focus with sustainability considerations. However, extant research only myopically tackles the sustainability potential of AGVs, focusing more on addressing network optimization problems and less on developing integrated and systematic methodological approaches for promoting economic, environmental and social sustainability. To that end, the present study provides a critical taxonomy of key decisions for facilitating the adoption of AGV systems into SC design and * Corresponding author. Tel: +30 2310 995896; fax: +30 2310 996018. E-mail address: dimbec@autom.teithe.gr (D. Bechtsis).2 planning, as these are mapped on the relevant strategic, tactical and operational levels of the natural hierarchy. We then propose the Sustainable Supply Chain Cube (S2C2), a conceptual tool that integrates sustainable SC management with the proposed hierarchical decision-making framework for AGVs'. Market opportunities and the potential of integrating AGVs into a SC context with the use of the S2C2 tool are further discussed.

A green ideology in Asian emerging economies: From environmental policy and sustainable development

“…Khan et al () and Sharma and Gandhi () research explored that logistics and transport sector is also a cause of several pollution intensive diseases such as lungs function weakening, pulmonary cancer, asthma attacks, and birth defects. Bechtsis, Tsolakis, Vlachos, and Iakovou () argued that heavy financial penalties should be imposed on polluted logistical operations and vehicles for better environmental sustainability. Bektas et al () and Khan and Dong () emphasized the need of green practices and utilization of renewable energy in logistics and supply chain operations to control/mitigate harmful effects on environment and society.…”

Transformation towards smart factory system: Examining new job profiles and competencies

“…Sinsel et al (2017) and Magone (2016) determined that the central perspective debated about Industry 4.0 is a technological perspective, although some studies on the management and economic evaluation of the smart factories exist. Most of them deal with the topic of supply chain management such as interconnections of cross-company supply chains (Bauer, Herkommer, & Schlund, 2015), opportunities for circular supply chains (Tsolakis, Kumar, & Srai, 2016), supply chain dynamics (Ivanov et al, 2016), sustainable supply chains (Bechtsis, Tsolakis, Vlachos, & Iakovou, 2017), followed by product individualization (e.g., Emmelmann, Rudolph, & Herzog, 2017), and business process optimization (e.g., Yin, Stecke, & Li, 2018). However, the aim of smart factories is also to consider the human aspect of the new paradigm brought by the fourth industrial revolution (Kang, Lee, Choi, Kim, & Noh, 2016), which is currently underresearched.…”

How supply chain choices affect the life cycle impacts of medical products

“…Therefore, we also conducted an 3 Product commercially available from Braskem: http://www.braskem.com/site.aspx/Im-greenTM-Polyethylene 4 See Govindan et al (2017) and Dangelico and Vocalelli (2017) for instance. 5 See Kannegiesser, Guenther and Autenrieb (2015), Bechtsis et al (2017) and Mokhtar et al (2017) for instance. 6 See Dangelico and Vocalelli (2017) and Ritter et al (2015) for instance.…”