How can supply chain design influence / or is influenced by location strategies using digitalization?

This report will reflect on how can supply chain design influence or is influenced by location strategies using digitalization. Nowadays, shorter product lifecycles and frequent product range changes influence necessary and reasonable locations, thereby creating supply chain requirements for the future (Henke et al., 2020). According to Marmolejo-Saucedo and Hartmann (2020), traditional supply chains lack integration and consist of various isolated steps; hence, there needs to be a digital supply chain (DSC). With the latest advances in technology, a number of companies have invested in the digitalization of operations and supply chains, such as Fedex, DHL, UPS, etc. DSC is considered an intelligent supply chain that leverages technological advancements by integrating various actors. The Internet of Things (IoT) plays a crucial role in monitoring and tracking location of IP-linked devices to generate information. Enterprises may make accurate decisions when they have the capacity to generate information and knowledge from their supply chain management systems. (Rahman et al., 2019) acknowledge that we are in IR 4.0 and that the Internet of Things has become the main agenda in different industries. Figure 1 illustrates how IR 4.0 technologies such as big data, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and others are disrupting the supply chain environment. Logistics entails movement and storage of products from locations playing a vital role. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the GDPs of many countries shrank, resulting in significant losses for businesses. This was due to the risk pause in the supply chain, which was used to deliver finished goods and raw materials using traditional supply chain systems. Pyun and Sung Rha (2021) assert that multinational companies such as BMW, Amazon, and Alibaba have made significant investments in technologies to digitalize their supply chains. One of the elaborate examples BMW was using a cloud-based supply chain receiving production schedules from suppliers. If there were delays in the supply chain because of accidents, they could secure visibility through simultaneous location identification utilizing a global positioning system (GPS). You can use the location of components, ordering costs, lead time, and inventory holding costs to oversee and regulate the inventory system. Data mining tools integrated with Big Data are effective in optimizing inventories inside industrial enterprises. RFID tags equip each inventory item, leading to the generation of substantial data (Taghipour, 2023).