awareness and adoption of innovative technologies in...

Journal of Information and Computational Science ISSN: 1548-7741

176 Volume 13 Issue 3 – 2020 www.joics.net

Awareness and Adoption of Innovative Technologies in Logistics Industry

1Tanu Manocha,

2Dr. M. Sahni,

3Dr. Vibha Dua Satija

1Research Scholar, Amity University, Noida

2Professor& DSW, Amity University, Noida

3Assistant Professor, IMM, New Delhi

Abstract

By the advancement in technology , the new term of Industrial Revolution has come up known as

Industry 4.0.The initiative of Industry 4.0 are persuading every area of business systems. The

innovative technologies used in Industry 4.0 are a fascinating tool for organization to manage

the business processes in a digitized way. Emerging technologies like big data analytics,

Autonomous robots, Internet of Things, cyber security, cloud computing and more of industry 4.0

are providing opportunities for all kind of business operations to break the barriers of

geographical locations and control the international market efficiently.

The paper aims to explore the awareness and adoption of new technological processes in

logistics Industry. It also identifies the various drivers and challenges in the implementation of

these new innovative technologies.

Key Words – Industry 4.0, logistics, Smart Industry, Digital Technology

Introduction

Industry 4.0

Concept and Perspectives of Industry 4.0

With the advancement in Technology Industry 4.0 has bought a new wave of doing business

process. This transformation has influenced all the business operations, methods and processes.

The initiative of Industry 4.0 indicates a new Industrial Revolution, a digitized era of advanced

production and operation methods with smart digital technology to create an organization with

no geographical barriers, connecting billions of people and processes to control the national and

international market efficiently.

In this dynamic business environment, business development and growth demands for highly

efficient services of product delivery and supply chain management process more faster, more

agile ,more accurate and more efficient.

While transitioning to a digitized, automated and fully interconnected supply chain requires

significant efforts,investments to bring the next level of operational effectiveness and realize

significant cost reduction.

Digitization makes the supply chain more efficient(Impact of Industry on Supply Chain , 2019)

Industry 4.0 is marked by the evolution of technologies such as robotics, big data analysis, block

chain, artificial Intelligence and Internet of things.



The digitization of business operations, manufacturing supply chain networks and products

drives companies to combine insights taken from humans, machines, analytics and predictive

insights taken from humans, machines ,analytics and predictive insights to make better decisions.

Industry 4.0 makes it possible to access real – time information and insights throughout an

organization to drive better decision making capabilities.

Industry 4.0 is a high tech strategic initiative plan in which internet based technologies are used

to improve all industrial processes, starting from manufacturing operations to sales and

marketing campaigns. Countries like Germany, China and USA took such initiatives to turn

“normal Internet” environments into smart environments by using technologies like Artificial

Intelligence, cloud computing, Internet of Things, AR/VR, 3D printing and Cyber security.

The concept of market has changed from offline to online due to the use of digital technologies.

The technologies introduced by Industry 4.0 enabled less powerful objects such as sensors or

RFID tags to cooperate with more powerful objects to perform smarter applications for

communication and cooperation among devices and standalone systems, so that a higher level of

intelligence can be provided to industrial processes. (Oliveira, E et al, 2018). Learning and

mining player motion profiles in Physically Interactive Robogames. (Future Internet)

If we talk about wireless network, it is easy to install it even in remote locations, it is more

scalable, all time accessibility of internet. All smart devices are wireless network enabled and

having multiple sensors which are helpful in providing relevant information from the owner of

the smart devices. This information can be used for various applications like customer feedback

collection.

Industry 4.0 gave a new paradigm of universal technological developments in business world.

Li,2018, Xu, et al, 2018 and Roblek et al, 2016 analyzed a number of technological drivers, such

as IOT, cloud computing, cognitive computing, mobile technologies, RFID, 3D printing, big data

analytics, robotics and cyber security etc. All these technologies gave a major impact over

business models, disappearance of geographical boundaries of business ecosystem and

decentralization of logistic system. It can be summarized as Industry 4.0 is an integrated,

optimized, adapted, service-oriented and interoperable process which correlates with big data

and high technologies.

Logistics 4.0

Industry 4.0 has influenced almost all the industries and the strongest influence is on

manufacturing but the industry, which is closely connected to it, is logistics. Logistics companies

apply information technology mainly in order to increase efficiency and automate workflow.

In logistics sector, digital IT applications enable to improve analysis, communication, design and

optimization of the processes. Industry 4.0 in logistics will bring transformation and creation of

“smart logistics” solutions.



Emerging trends and technologies of Industry 4.0 have changed the ways of Logistics by using

digital platforms and emerged efficiently as cross-border platforms with huge shared transport

and warehouse capacity and made production and operations very convenient for business

organizations. Use of driverless vehicles, drones and robots is very helpful in completing tasks of

production and packaging very fast, easy and reliable.

The need for transparency, right products to be delivered at the right place at right time in right

quantity and quality and at right costs is essentially required in logistics and supply chain.

Also, it is necessary to track and analyze the current location in real time. So, the multi sensor

trackers using cellular connectivity, we can provide with real time information, monitoring and

analysis of location, climate and integrity of shipments.

Already the use of GPS software is giving frequent updates, precise location and the real time

information of the product. The move towards the adoption of industry 4.0 is making logistics a

“Smart Industry”.

To exchange time and information, we need to be connected to the real time information. The

evolution of ICT and emergence of IIOT is very much necessary to be adopted by various

logistics and supply chain industries to face the challenges and survive in this competitive world.

Adoption of Industry 4.0 is required to mitigate the risk involved in this sector of logistics and

supply chain management.

The 4th

industry revolution is reshaping the conventional methods and business processes of

industry by introducing industrial internet of things (IIOT) and cyber physical production

systems (CPPS). Today even a non-technical person is quite familiar with concepts of smart

homes, smart cars, smart education and smart cities, smart logistics, smart supply chain, etc.

Digital transformation to industry 4.0 has made the systems more organized, flexible, transparent

and interlinked internal production, pre-assembly sales and external service providers. Thus, it

applies to all the inbound logistics, intra- logistics and outbound logistics.

Industry 4.0 is enabled by ubiquitous internet access, machine to machine communication and

advanced data analysis. It will not only increase the production efficiency but also enable mass

production of customized products according to the requirement of the customers. It is also

concerned with health and safety of the workforce, quality of working conditions, improved

work-life balance with a reason that happier workforce will produce better quality products and

will be more productive and innovative.



Figure 1 –Industry 4.0 reshaping methods of production, operation and logistics

Source - Industry 4.0: Penetrating Digital Technologies Reshape Global Manufacturing Sector

https://blog.euromonitor.com/industry-4-0-penetrating-digital-technologies-reshape-global-manufacturing-sector/

Technologies in Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 involves technical integration of Cyber- Physical systems into manufacturing and

logistics and in industrial processes; there is a use of Internet of Things and Services.

This will create a value for the organization, business models, and services and even in the work

organizations (Lu, 2017).

With the widespread use of digital technologies, the industry 4.0 has made the smart factory a

reality.

Connectivity (IIOT), automation and optimization, transparency, modularization and many

technology are working together to realize full potential of Industry 4.0.

(Ruessmann, et al., 2015) defines that majorly nine technologies have been identified which are

used for industry 4.0. The various technologies are:

Big data Analytics

Autonomous Robotics

Simulation

Horizontal and Vertical Systems Integration

Internet of Things (including sensors)

Cyber Security

Cloud Computing

Additive Manufacturing

Augmented Reality

(Ustundag & Cevikean, 2018)Further various technologies which are added like:



Artificial Intelligence

Mobile Technologies

RFID and RTLS

3 D Printing

At a very fast pace more innovative technological processes are added and it is growing

rapidly.

Figure 2 – Technologies of Industry 4.0

Source - https://www.123rf.com/photo_86424482_stock-vector-infographic-icons-of-industry-4.0-internet-of-

things-network-smart-factory-solution-smart-technology.html

Impact of Logistics 4.0

Industry 4.0 has transformed the working processes of logistics and Supply chain Management

sector.(Rathore, 11 Oct 2018) Explains that existing processes have been replaced by the various

innovative digital technologies. The digitization of processes, integration and monitoring,

tracking and analytical technologies has enabled seamless logistics and supply chain

management processes and has improved the overall efficiency and effectiveness up to a large

extent. Some of the processes implemented in this sector are explained by(Manocha & Sharma,

2020)



The use of sensor technology for climatic sensitive products are used in high tech

Pharma, Food and Beverage Industry for handling national and international freight .

It has also created an ease in the freight industry, implementation of weight and

dimension technology which automatically fits the freight in as per the required

containers.

The use of exponential technologies which includes Robotics, artificial Intelligence based

on forward thinking providers has been implemented in the organization and autonomous

vehicles have created more organized warehousing services.

Few more technologieslike RFID tracking, technologies like voice picking to vision

picking via AR, adaptive Robots and connected automated vehicles and end to end

visibility solution.

New Production Method

Digital Platforms

New Methods of Physical Transportation

Data Collection

Figure 3: Building Blocks of Logistics 4.0

Source -https://www.adlittle.com/sites/default/files/prism/logistics_section.pdf

All the technologies implemented (William , 2019)or to be implemented soon has make the

process more efficient and effective and has also reduced the transit time and has improved the

Data Collection & Treatment

Logistics control Tower

Augmented Reality

Driverless Trucks/vehicles

Handling Robots

Drones

Big Cross-border platform Shared Transport Capacity Shared Warehouse Capacity Crowd sourcing

3 D Printing



service reliability and the process more transparent, flexible, speedy, easily accessible and

available to all.

Key benefits of Industry 4.0

Implementation of technology has eased the business processes in logistics and Supply chain

management (Impact of Industry 4.0 on Supply chain - All you need to know , 2019) as follows

Greater Transparency and Accuracy

Data backed decision , making lead to cost savings

Increased interconnectedness and Collaboration

Improved warehouse Management

Intelligent Logistics and SCM solution

Greater Agility

METHODOLGY

The study comprises of both the primary research and secondary literature research .The primary

data is collected through the respondents by developing a questionnaire. The data was collected

using a questionnaire. The study captured the opinions of young professionals working in

different sectors in Delhi NCR on the awareness and adoption of Industry 4.0 in organizations.

The questionnaire covered several topics including the level of awareness about industry 4.0, the

aspects relevant to the company,the adoption of industry 4.0, drivers and challenges and future

plans for the implementation of Industry 4.0.

The respondents were randomly selected from different sectors of organization. The

questionnaire was sent through online platform and responses were received and stored in a

database. From 150 sent email, 121 completed the responses which translate a response to a

response rate of 80.6%.

DATA ANALYSIS& INTERPRETATION

In this section a brief description of questions and analyzed results from the questionnaire are

provided.

Demographic Features:

Age

The data collected from young professionals working in different organizations. The respondents

were of different Age groups. The results indicate that majority of respondents 39.7 % were from

the age group of 26- 30 years. 24.8% of the respondents were in the age group of 20-25 years.14

% of the respondents was from the age group of 31-35 years and 21.5 % were of the age above

35 years.



Figure: 4- Age

Gender

As the total number of respondents was 121 and out of which 62 were males i.e. 51.2 % and 59

were females i.e. 48.8%.

Figure: 5- Gender

Qualification

The majority of respondents were highly educated and were post graduate, and only 14.9 % of

the respondent were graduates



Figure: 6 – Qualification

Industry Type

Figure 7: Industry Type

The data collected from the respondents working in different sectors. It is essential to evaluate

the current situation of industry 4.0. The respondents were asked the different sectors, in which

kind of organization they are working with. As shown in Figure 7 , it indicates that 42

respondents works in manufacturing industry and 38 respondents are in logistics industry .



Awareness of Industry 4.0

Figure 8: Awareness about the Industry 4.0

High level of knowledge about industry 4.0 is required. The buzz word industry 4.0 is to

understand how much people are aware about it. It is asked about the scale of not at all aware,

little aware, average and good knowledge. The majority of the respondents replied that they have

average awareness about Industry 4.0 .46.3 % respondents (56) have average knowledge about

industry 4.0.19.8 % demonstrates a good knowledge regarding Industry 4.0 and 10.7%

respondents are not aware about Industry 4.0.

Figure: 9 – Awareness about the Technologies



Industry 4.0 refers to the adoption of various technologies; the various technologies which are

adopted are RFID and RTLS technologies, Advanced GPS and real time systems, Sensor

technologies, Mobile and devices, Embedded Systems, Cloud Technology, Internet of Things,

Big data analysis, Autonomous Robots, Augmented Reality. As figure 9, indicates that 73.6 % of

people are aware about mobile and devices. 69.4 % are aware about Internet of things.

Figure 10: Level of contribution of Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is attaining and rolling out digital capabilities across the organization. 41.3%

respondents agree that industry 4.0 is very relevant in the organization and leads to increase the

overall competitiveness.

Figure 11: Application of Industry 4.0 in different departments of an organization



The application of Industry 4.0 is widely used in an organization .As shown in figure 11

respondents identified that the usage of industry 4.0 is widely employed in IT department and

43.8 % in Logistics and SCM and 38.8 % in Manufacturing and Production department.

Figure: 12- Application of Information Technology in an organization

Industry 4.0 has different aspects which can affect the organizations in different ways. In an

organization it is used in Production Planning and Scheduling, Procurement and Inventory

Management, Warehousing Management and Smart Logistics and SCM.

Figure: 13- Adoption of Industry 4.0 has benefited the organization



Adoption of Industry 4.0 has benefitted the organization, As shown in Figure 13, Respondents

clearly indicates 70.2 % of the respondents indicates that implementation of Industry 4.0, leads

to reduce in time and has also lead to improved services. However 8.3% respondents declare that

industry 4.0 has no benefits in their organization.

Figure 14: Drivers for the implementation of Industry 4.0

The major drivers which leads to the implementation of industry 4.0, is to reduce time and cost

which is clearly indicated in the figure 14. The customer requirement, competitors practice

Industry 4.0, for the survival in the market and legal requirements there is a need for the

implementation of industry 4.0.

Figure: 15- Major Challenges and Barriers



Although there are many significant benefits in the implementation of industry 4.0.There are

some serious challenges and barriers which are to be needed to be considered and handled. From

the lack of knowledge, Lack of technological limitations, Operational, Cultural and Environment

related challenges, Privacy Issues, Digitization and Data Analytics Issue, Lack of employee

readiness are the challenges need to be studied and then the best solution need to be identified.

Figure 15 summarizes the idea of the respondents about the challenges ahead. 54.5% of the

respondents believe that cyber security issues, privacy issues and lack of technical and non-

technical work force are the important issues which are to be considered.

Conclusion

The result of the survey indicates that the new technologies implemented in an organization are

very important as it creates a significant benefit to the organization. However there is still more

awareness is to be created, more knowledge needs to be upgraded regarding the adaptation of

these changes into the business models to gain more and more benefits and minimize the

barriers.

Industry 4.0 could significantly transform the way the companies are working and could achieve

the significant benefits in getting more transparency, flexibility, better quality, and makes a

process more efficient.

According to the response of respondents as IT department is more relevant where industry 4.0 is

implemented.

The technological implementation in different departments in an organization can be considered

to be the backbone of industry 4.0 in manufacturing and logistics and SCM industries which are

already in a process of using it and just need to be customized and connected to other systems to

form a smart industry.

Some analysis and insights obtained from this paper are significant and useful for the

organization when they are contemplating Industry 4.0 concepts and solutions.

Further studies can be carried out to study the specific scenario .More level of awareness should

be created and major challenges, the internal and external challenges need to be identified and

addressed , so as to make the organization as a smart organization.



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1. https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/services/advisory/digital-transformation.html

2. https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/in/pdf/2017/05/Online-Education-in-India-

2021.pdf

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//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/15829501.cms?from=mdr&utm_source=co

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https://indianexpress.com/article/india/ecosystem-hit-govt-thumbs-up-but-fingers-crossed-in-tech-space-5376326/

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/ecosystem-hit-govt-thumbs-up-but-fingers-crossed-in-tech-space-5376326/

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