Case study

LOG 4.0

Digitization of Supply Chains and Industrial Competitiveness.

The project

Duration: Jan. 2022 – Dec. 2024

The LOG 4.0 project aims to overcome the scientific barriers identified in the digitization of supply chains in three strategic industrial sectors—pharmaceuticals, perfumes and cosmetics, and agri-food—as applied to the Seine Corridor, the region with the highest concentration of transportation and logistics companies in France.

The approach is multidisciplinary: management sciences, transportation economics, and economic geography, enhanced by computer vision and artificial intelligence algorithms based on deep learning, in collaboration with the École Polytechnique d’Alger and Chalmers University (Sweden).

The central question: How do new digital technologies (IoT, Big Data, collaborative platforms, AI, Digital Twin) help optimize logistics processes and strengthen the competitiveness of industrial sectors at the regional level?

The result

The work produced an operational conceptual framework for LOG 4.0 structured around four complementary research areas —state of the art, supply chain analysis, solution design, and impact assessment—and highlighted several practical findings:

Platformization

Collaborative digital platforms are recognized as a key driver for supply chain optimization: real-time traceability, improved truck load factors, data sharing, and automation of business processes.

Digital Twin

Digital twins are being studied as a tool for predicting and managing disruptions in global supply chains (literature review and business case analysis presented at World of Shipping Portugal, 2023).

Change Management

According to Autissier (2016), cultural change is the primary prerequisite for the successful deployment of a digital platform. Stakeholder buy-in is identified as the key—understanding their needs and concerns in order to gain their support for the project.

Four types of locks

The project identifies four categories of organizational barriers that must be overcome to achieve a digitized supply chain: platformization, security (privacy, cybercrime), resources and costs, and change management.

Sector-specific case studies conducted on several leading industrial companies empirically validate the hypotheses regarding the relationship between process digitization and gains in operational and financial competitiveness.

TECHNOLOGIES STUDIED

IoT

(Internet of Things)

RFID & RTLS

(Time Traceability

(actual)

Digital Twin

Blockchain

CPPS

(Cyber-Physical

(Prod. Syst.)

TMS / WMS

SCOR Model