The COVID-19 pandemic has affected global supply chains at an unprecedented speed and scale. In response, these businesses are now transitioning toward data-driven decision making to anticipate future performance and improve operational efficiencies, which will require the gathering and analysis of a vast amount of data in real-time. This chapter explains how 5G, with its capabilities such as ultralow latency and high bandwidth, is shaping and transforming the global supply chain. The authors present how to prepare for and avoid future supply chain disruptions. Further, the authors have showcased some practical 5G use cases in the manufacturing and logistics industries.
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We are living in an era where consumers demand personalized products and services delivered on the same day or within a minimal lead time at the lowest possible cost. “The Amazon Effect” (Lin G 2018) and customer behavior are fueling the growth of e-commerce. Shopping has seen a remarkable transformation over the years. From being a monthly or weekly ritual, shopping habits have transformed into a just-in-time activity for both individual and business customers. The volume of shipments has increased manifold while the size of the individual cart has reduced. Pitney Bowes estimates that global parcel volume surpassed 100 billion in 2019 and is forecast to reach more than 220 billion parcels by 2026 (Pitney B, 2020). Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerabilities and deficiencies of the lean, just-in-time global supply chain model, and companies must now decide how to move forward (Eric K., 2022). Pandemic-related shutdowns, geopolitics, labor shortages, and even weather have had a big impact on supply chains everywhere on the globe, resulting in supply chain bottlenecks, increased costs, and disruptions.
In response to the dramatic changes within the business landscape over the past few years, starting with COVID-19 and finishing with inflation, many companies across different industries are launching technology-enabled (digital) business transformation programs to improve their strategic, tactical, and operational supply chain processes. According to McKinsey’s survey, 93% of supply-chain executives said that they intended to make their supply chains far more flexible, agile, and resilient (Knut and Ed 2021). According to the latest prediction by Gartner (Sarah H, 2022), by 2026, more than 75% of commercial supply chain management application vendors will deliver embedded advanced analytics (AA), artificial intelligence (AI), and data science. Now, improved decision-making using advanced analytics and AI is a high priority for supply chain users in all markets and industries. Gartner (Sarah H., 2022) also predicted that by 2025, 25% of supply chain decisions are expected to be made across intelligent edge ecosystems. Edges are physical locations where things, people, and data connect, such as operators, machines, sensors, and devices that are located across the supply chain network. Edge ecosystems allow complex processing and storage closer to where data is collected. 5G (wireless technology) will further support edge ecosystems and complement traditional centralized supply chain solutions. Edge computing decision-making is already occurring; however, the focus over the next three years will be to identify further use cases where connected, automated, and autonomous networks of edge computing can be enabled.