Port logistic issues and challenges in the Industry 4.0 era for emerging economies: an India perspective

Intelligent Warehouse in Industry 4.0-Systematic Literature Review

The development of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and the digitization and automation of manufacturing processes have created a demand for designing smart warehouses to support manufacturing processes. Warehousing is one of the fundamental processes in the supply chain, and is responsible for handling inventory. Efficient execution of warehouse operations often determines the effectiveness of realized goods flows. Therefore, digitization and its use in exchanging information between partners, especially real-time inventory levels, is critical. For this reason, the digital solutions of Industry 4.0 have quickly found application in internal logistics processes and enabled the design of smart warehouses, also known as Warehouse 4.0. The purpose of this article is to present the results of the conducted review of publications on the design and operation of warehouses using the concepts of Industry 4.0. A total of 249 documents from the last 5 years were accepted for analysis. Publications were searched for in the Web of Science database using the PRISMA method. The article presents in detail the research methodology and the results of the biometric analysis. Based on the results, a two-level classification framework was proposed, which includes 10 primary categories and 24 subcategories. Each of the distinguished categories was characterized based on the analyzed publications. It should be noted that in most of these studies, the authors' attention primarily focused on the implementation of (1) Industry 4.0 technological solutions, such as IoT, augmented reality, RFID, visual technology, and other emerging technologies; and (2) autonomous and automated vehicles in warehouse operations processes. Critical analysis of the literature also allowed us to identify the current research gaps, which will be the subject of further research by the authors.

Severity analysis and risk profiling of port logistics barriers in the Industry 4.0 era

Purpose

Global trade depends on more complex, prolonged and larger port systems, where port logistics is a backbone for such operations. Ports are responsible for transferring more than 80 percent of the global trade. Port logistics are prone to being risk-oriented. The study proposes a model to study various port logistics barriers and their associated risks for emerging economies in the Industry 4.0 era.

Design/methodology/approach

The study develops a framework by integrating the fuzzy set theory, the evidential reasoning approach and the expected utility theorem for identifying the severity value of port logistics barriers under the Industry 4.0 era for emerging economies and prioritize them based on various perspectives. The study identifies multiple risks associated with the barriers, and intensity-based categorization of the risks is performed for risk profiling.

Findings

The study reveals that poor infrastructure, nonsupportive policy ecosystem, and lack of research and development are the top barriers that need immediate attention. A new approach has been proposed that changes the importance of perspectives, and 192 analytical experiments were done to study the changing behavior of barriers. The study also presents various types of risks associated with the selected barriers.

Research limitations/implications

In future studies, other barriers can be discovered and studied to develop such models. To cover the entire spectrum of possibilities, belief degrees of the barriers could be used to study the barriers instead of changing the weights.

Practical implications

This study presents a quantification model to prioritize the barriers based on environmental, economic and operational perspectives. Further, the model helps create scenarios for decision-makers to improve port logistics performance and achieve sustainability. The study identifies various risks associated with port logistics barriers and allows decision-makers to take proactive actions.

Originality/value

This study contributes significantly to the literature on port logistics by developing a framework for determining the severity of the barriers in the Industry 4.0 era for emerging economies. Further, the study pinpoints various risks associated with port logistics, and risk profiling is carried out.