POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITS OF DIGITALIZATION TO INCREASE SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE

In case any unexpected circumstances occur, a supply chain may be heavily influenced with a wide range of negative consequences such as inability to deliver or large delays in delivery. Therefore, it is important for every supply chain and the companies that are involved in them to reduce these negative outcomes. In this context, the term Supply Chain Resilience (SCR) stands for the level of adaptability of a supply chain to respond to and recover from disruptions. A high SCR is given if re-maintaining operational continuity is quickly possible. As an example of unexpected disruptions, the COVID19-crisis showed major impacts on the functionality of global supply chains. The upcoming technologies of industrial Digitalization, mainly known as Industry 4.0, provide opportunities to increase SCR. In this paper, first a brief overview of different surveys is given to show the COVID19-impact on global supply chains and therefore prove the need to generally increase SCR. Second, an insight of how especially Digitalization may help to increase SCR is provided. Especially improving the data base for all supply chain partners, faster and more precise decision-making processes, including the use of Artificial Intelligence, are described. Finally, positive chances and major challenges of using Digitalization to increase SCR are addressed.