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A supply chain is a worldwide network of suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, distribution centres and retailers through which raw materials are procured, transformed and delivered to customers. In recent years, a new systems approach to supply chain management has emerged at both tactical and operational levels. It views a supply chain as an interaction of intelligent (software) agents that are responsible for one or more activities and interact with other related agents in planning and executing tasks. In this article two application examples of so-called multi-agent systems for supply chain management are presented.

Based on known deficits, the article recommends measures for a successful realization of the concept Industry 4.0 on the levels “Business”, “Functional” and “Information” of the RAMI-4.0-Framework. The technical foundations to meet the expectations of Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing are in place; a correction of the named deficits in the near future seems realistic.

The urban population is growing and with it the need to meet the emerging challenges with sustainable solutions. The concept of the Physical Internet (PI) represents such an approach, which includes a complete supply chain perspective, but also a direct effect on the urban environment. At the same time, its implementation comes with requirements for the integration into the city district, which makes it necessary to adapt various urban characteristics. This article creates a generic design framework for this.

Volatility in market demand leads to temporary over- and under-utilization of production assets and stocks. Levelling (heijunka) as a lean method aims at de-coupling production from market volatility. The production program is spread as even as possible over time. This achieves high asset utilization, short lead times, and low inventories. There are validated heijunka methods for the manufacturing industry, but for the process industry this remains a research gap. This article describes the Product Wheel and its validation at a building material manufacturer in order to close that gap.

The food production process and raw material specific parameters significantly influence the quality of the final product. Furthermore, for products with several ingredients, complex parameter effects occur. This complexity causes the desire for a production control that considers these effects and orientates on final product quality. This article describes the state of the art and derives requirements form a case study in a delicatessen food production system. In summary, this paper presents a concept for production control with special consideration of the final product quality for the production of delicatessen salads.

Modern logistic processes are still characterized by manual labour. In general, mainly unqualified or low-skilled employees are used to carry out value-added services. Individual workloads, employee skills and technical workplace equipment are linked in a developed system. By simulating the effect of changes in workplace equipment, optimizations can be identified. The self-developed algorithm can also be used in other industries.

Due to the possibility of operator intervention, semi-autonomous systems allow for a better handling of complexity than fully autonomous systems. The use of a digital twin provides a novel interface for interaction with such systems. This paper describes the implementation of the control and user interface in a system with a digital twin. It is shown how the developed control architecture can be combined with different methods of human-machine interaction and virtual training. With this extended use of the control system by a digital twin the concept can be extended beyond the operation phase and can be used in other phases of the product life cycle.

With industry 4.0 technologies the new demands on production companies can be made manageable. The most common issue is the lack of transparency and efficient structure in intralogistics processes. In various projects of the Mittelstand 4.0 Kompetenzzentrum Chemnitz the use of Auto-ID and assistance systems has shown how this deficiency can be remedied. In one of these a local company improves its transparency and reduced the intralogistic search effort by 20 %.

The Physical Internet is based on physical, digital, and operational interconnectivity, without which a globally fragmented and standardized freight transport system could not operate efficiently. Valid input data are necessary for the self-control of global flows of goods. In addition, a high level of trust in control decisions is essential for a far-reaching acceptance of all actors and customers in the logistics industry. These two goals can only be achieved by high data-quality. In addition to increasing data-quality through automation or the use of advanced sensor technology, methods of data-fusion and decision-fusion offer great potential. This article describes a methodical approach to analyze these potentials. Furthermore, this procedure is exemplarily carried out using a transit center.

The article addresses serverless computing and the criteria a serverless architecture must meet. Serverless computing allows developers to deploy applications as a set of functions without worrying about the underlying IT-infrastructure. This software paradigm is then used to implement a global IoT platform for numerous IoT devices in the AWS cloud.