Based on the questions “What are the benefits of Industry 4.0 for my company and how can an implementation be achieved?” are we working together with selected industrial partners to find answers to questions referring to the management of Industry 4.0. We use our Business Case Calculator for the evaluation of innovative business models.
The Financial Supply Chain considers financial flows within the whole supply chain in order to identify saving potentials for manufacturers, suppliers and financial providers. Therefore we further investigate in the fields of Supply Chain Finance and Smart Finance.
Smart Finance is working on the alignment of financial and material flows. The use of new technologies for the digitalization of financial flows such as Smart Contracts and Blockchains or Smart Payment (B2B) for digitizing transaction processes provides substantial advantages for companies that are working in the field of Smart Finance.
Inclusive Supply Chain Finance (iSCF) is a relatively new tool for Financial Supply Chain Management. iSCF releases liquidity tied-up in the Supply Chain and creates advantages for all players along the value chain.
KPIs are used for the support of decisions as well as the management and control of activities within companies. The usage of Smart Analytics can help to select relevant data for the business management in order to e.g. increase the efficiency in procurement.
Procurement Engineering focuses on the analysis of quantitative and qualitative performance data as well as the identification of saving potentials. The benchmarking of quantitative and qualitative data for internal and external reasons is another part to e.g. increase the competitiveness of individual companies.
Procurement plays an important role in the implementation of Industry 4.0. It interacts with nearly all internal departments and external partners of the entire supply chain. Without any doubt, procurement has a high responsibility for the entire company.
The current study "Digitalization of procurement – Procurement 4.0" gives a first guidance for the implementation of Industry 4.0 in procurement organizations.
Tools – based on software, which help the user to identify risk causes, visualize and evaluate them, are the main tasks for the Supply Chain Risk Management. In addition the consequences of risks are evaluated and compared with potential countermeasures in order to ensure an efficient risk management.
Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics