Ben-Daya, M., Hassini, E. and Bahroun, Z., 2019. Internet of things and supply chain management: a literature review. International Journal of Production Research, 57(15-16), pp.4719-4742.
13 OCT 2019
Lukman J.
Problem
The modern business environment is ever changing and this affects the supply chains as well as other business operations. The customers are also demanding more and more as days go by in terms of price and quality. The external environmental is also getting harsh because of the tough economic times and social strife. In order to survive such occurrences, there is need for companies to adopt mitigation measures and structural flexibility to enable an environment that is pleasing to the customers and bringing economic benefits to the company. Information technology has been an enabler of effective supply chain management. It has helped enhance communication and transmission of data. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the latest invention in the IT world. IoT enhances supply chain management by enhancing visibility, agility and adaptability. It increases responsiveness rates as databases are in real time and it also will enable remote management of supply chains.
Comments
The problem statement concurs with the topic of the paper and was clear to comprehend. It is as well captured well in the abstract. I however, felt that more could have been done to introduce the Internet of Things well especially to readers who might not be accustomed to such terms before one proceeds to read the rest of the paper. The introduction though was educative.
Historical Background
The historical background was provided in the paper. In my opinion there was too much irrelevant information provided in the text. Basically the author provided numerous description of IoT. The text would have attained maximum relevance if the IoT description was reduced. The definition of IoT is very long and there is no provided background of Supply chain management which is also a variable in the study.
Review Methodology and Summary
The review methodology for the study employed was a systematic literature review and a bibliometric analysis. This was appropriate though some of the keywords for search engines utilized were not previously mentioned in the introduction or title, a word like ‘Industry 4.0.’ the bibliometric analysis was appropriately displayed.
Literature Review
There was a clear review of literature with numerous authors cited in the paper. Most of literature though cited was about the role of IoT and none was seen that showed the impact of the IoT on supply chain management. The author also cited gaps in the literature available for the the impacts of IoT on supply chains.
Discussion and conclusions
The discussion is provided for IoT and supply chains, though the impact of IoT on supply chains is not clear as stated in the introduction. Conclusion is definite and it also provides future directions for future research.
Overall Critique
The report is a very comprehensive report on the matters of IoT and provides an in-depth understanding of IoTs and their role in supply chain management. There was a need of a list of objectives for the study to give the researcher a sense of direction and probably not leave out some parts such as, the impact of IoTs on supply chain management. The discussion did not provide a comprehensive coverage of the results. Also a lot of technical language was used throughout the text making it complicated. Overall the paper, which was a literature review followed the appropriate guidelines.