The future of supply chain- a perspective from the process and online retail industries

This paper discusses the broad challenges shared by online retail and the process industries operating global supply chains. Specifically, we discuss how process industry and online retailing differ in many aspects but have similar challenges ahead of them in order to remain competitive, keep up with the always increasing requirements of the customers and stakeholders, and gain efficiency. While both industries have been early adopters of decision support tools based on machine intelligence, both share unresolved challenges related to scalability, integration of decision-making over different time horizons (e.g., strategic, tactical and execution-level decisions) and across internal business units, and orchestration of human and computer -based decision-makers. We discuss future trends and research opportunities in the area of supply chain, and suggest that the methods of multi-agent systems supported by rigorous treatment of human decision-making in combination with machine intelligence is a great contender to address these critical challenges.

Automated summary

The paper discusses the shared challenges faced by online retail and process industries in operating global supply chains, such as remaining competitive, meeting increasing customer demands, and improving efficiency. Although both industries have adopted decision support tools based on machine intelligence, they still face unresolved issues related to scalability, decision integration across different time horizons, and coordination between human and computer decision-makers. The paper discusses future trends and research opportunities in the field of supply chain, and suggests that using multi-agent systems and machine intelligence can effectively address these critical challenges.