Enhancing Supply Chain Operations Using IoT and Digital Twin
Factory Twin
Replenishment
Warehouse
Demand Signals
Delivery
Consumers ( B2B or B2C ) Fulfilment
Store
Supply Chain Process Twin
Figure 2-1 : Simplified process digital twin .
Figure 2-1 shows a simplified view of the digital twin of the supply chain process . The process twin may be composed of the digital twins of the sub-processes such as the manufacturing process , replenishment of inventory process , order delivery process and fulfillment process to the business or end consumer . To close the loop , this leads to demand signals back to the production systems in the factory .
Let as look at how technology can be harnessed to reduce the chances of recurrence of Ever Given like crisis in future :
• This issue was caused by high winds and sandstorm that reduced the visibility and prevented the ship to stay on a straight course . Better use of weather predictions and enhanced navigational devices to assist the ship ’ s captain would have reduced the chances of the ship getting stuck . Integration of such leading weather predictions , to the safety and transit simulation model , based on the digital twin of the Suez Canal and its traffic operations , could be one plausible solution in future .
• While it is not always possible to have a second human co-pilot , an equivalent of the ship ’ s Captain using generative AI-based technologies can provide the captain with a second opinion for navigation and risk avoidance in such cases .
• In future , alerting the ship ’ s crew and the Suez Canal traffic operations about using tugboats proactively in marginal weather conditions or holding and pacing the other ships , can be a recommendation from the SCM process digital twins .
• Finally , advising the enterprise shippers to not put all their “ eggs in one basket ” when possible and split their shipments into two different ships or modes of transportation , to
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