Development of the Supply Chain Management 2040 – Opportunities and challenges

Abstract

Logistics and supply chain management have undergone significant change due to technological changes in the recent years. The classic transport, handling and storage processes with a strict functional orientation have been transformed into a global, network-oriented task-field. The future challenges are individual customer requirements, shorter delivery times and increasing cost pressure. Due to these challenges and the increasing globalization, companies are confronted with ever more complex supply chain networks. The digital transformation is intended to remedy this situation. New technologies, comprehensive real-time information availability and agile value creation networks are just examples to meet these challenges. This paper provides an overview of the expected developments in supply chain management over the next 20 years. Based on ten future megatrends, four main topics (technology, control tower, value adding and green logistics) were derived. The focus of this paper is on OEMs and Tier 1/n suppliers. Both are undergoing a major change on the customer and supplier side due to their central position within the supply chain.