Background: As the Internet of Things (IoT) has become more prevalent in recent years, digital twins have attracted a lot of attention. A digital twin is a virtual representation that replicates a physical object or process over a period of time. These tools directly assist in reducing the manufacturing and supply chain lead time to produce a lean, flexible, and smart production and supply chain setting. Recently, reinforced machine learning has been introduced in production and logistics systems to build prescriptive decision support platforms to create a combination of lean, smart, and agile production setup. Therefore, there is a need to cumulatively arrange and systematize the past research done in this area to get a better understanding of the current trend and future research directions from the perspective of Industry 4.0. Methods: Strict keyword selection, search strategy, and exclusion criteria were applied in the Scopus database (2010 to 2021) to systematize the literature. Results: The findings are snowballed as a systematic review and later the final data set has been conducted to understand the intensity and relevance of research work done in different subsections related to the context of the research agenda proposed. Conclusion: A framework for data-driven digital twin generation and reinforced learning has been proposed at the end of the paper along with a research paradigm.

Background: Digital and smart supply chains are reforming the food chain to help eliminate waste, improve food safety, and reduce the possibility of a global food catastrophe. The globe currently faces numerous food-related issues, ranging from a lack of biodiversity to excessive waste, and from ill health caused by excessive consumption to widespread food insecurity. It is time to look back at how technology has tackled food supply-chain challenges related to quality, safety, and sustainability over the last decade. Moreover, continuous transformations of the food supply chain into a more sustainable business model with utmost resilience is the need of the hour due to COVID-19 disruptions. Method: This study aimed to systematize literature (2010–2021) in the described context and propose a future research direction, with the assistance of a systematic review and bibliometric analysis on the research agenda proposed above. Results: The findings reveal that technological Industry 4.0 (IR 4.0) tools face specific barriers due to the scope and objective of the application. Conclusion: The Internet of Things has received more attention than any other IR 4.0 tool. More integration between the specialized tools is needed to address this issue. Furthermore, the authors have proposed a food supply chain-based operational framework on technological inclusion to facilitate the roadmap for food supply chain 4.0 for more resilience and food supply chain viability.

Purpose: Lean implementation is vastly incorporated in core manufacturing processes; however, its applicability in the supply chain and service industry is still in its infancy. To acquire performance excellence and thrive in the global competitive market, many firms are adopting newer methodologies. But, there is a stringent need for production simulation systems to analyze supply chains both inbound and outbound. The era of face validation is slowly disappearing. Lean tools and procedures that provide future state assumptions need advanced tools and techniques to measure, quantify, analyze and validate them. The purpose of this study is to enable dynamic quantification and visualization of the future state of a warehouse supply chain value stream map using discrete event simulation (DES) technique. Design/methodology/approach: This study aimed to apply an integrated approach of the value stream mapping (VSM) and DES in a Malaysian pharmaceutical production warehouse. The main focus is diverted towards reducing the warehouse supply chain lead time by initially constructing a supply chain value stream map (both present state and future state) and integrating its data in a DES modelling and simulation software to dynamically visualize the changes in future state value stream map. Findings: The DES simulation was able to mimic the future state lead time reductions successfully, which assists in better decision-making. Improvements were seen related to total lead time, process time, value and non-value-added percentage. Warehouse performance metrics such as receiving, put away and storage rates were substantially improved along with pallet processing time, worker and forklift throughput usage percentage. Detailed findings are clearly stated at the end of this paper. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited to the warehouse environment and further additional process models and functional upgrades in the DES software systems are very much needed to directly visualize and quantify all the possible Lean assumptions such as radio frequency image identification/Andon (Jidoka), 5S, Kanban, Just-In-Time and Heijunka. However, DES has a leading edge in extracting dynamic characteristics out of a static VSM timeline and capture details on discrete events precisely by picturizing facility modification and lead time related to it. Practical implications: This paper includes all the fundamental pharmaceutical warehouse supply chain processes and the simulations of the future state VSM in a real-life context by successfully reducing supply chain lead time and allowing managers in inculcating near-optimal decision-making, controlling and coordinating warehouse supply chain activities as a whole. Social implications: This integrated approach of DES and VSM can involve managers and top management to support the adoption of anticipated changes. This study also has the potential to engage practitioners, researchers and decision-makers in the warehouse industry. Originality/value: This study involves a powerful DES software package that can mimic the real situation as a virtual simulation and all the data and model building are based on a real warehouse scenario in the pharmaceutical industry.

The recent technological inclusions in supply chains are encouraging practitioners to continuously rethink and redesign these supply chains. Organizations are trying to implement sustainable manufacturing and supply chain practices to utilize their resources to the full extent in order to gain a competitive advantage. Circular supply chain management acts as the main pathway to achieve optimal circular business models; however, research in this area is still in its infancy and there is a need to study and analyze how the benefits of technology can be leveraged in conventional models to impact circular supply chains and build smart, sustainable, circular business models. To gain better familiarity with the future research paradigms, a detailed systematic literature review was conducted on this topic to identify the dynamics of this field and domains deserving further academic attention. A holistic and unique review technique was used by the authors to capture maximal insights. A total of 96 publications from 2010 to 2021 were selected from the Web of Science core collection database through strict keyword search codes and exclusion criteria, with neat integration of systematic and bibliometric analyses. The findings of this study highlight the knowledge gaps and future research directions, which are presented at the end of this paper.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to apply value stream mapping (VSM) in Malaysian pharmaceutical production warehouse. A current and future state value stream map from the raw material receiving end to the production unit was developed to find out waste and unwanted lead time. It was very much essential to cut down the supply chain lead time at the initial phase as the raw material unloading, sorting, temporary storage and dispatch to production were seen contributing to a huge lead time build-up. Design/methodology/approach: The study was initiated with the selection of a product family, construction of the current state map, identification of various wastes and the development of future state map. Findings: The expected outcomes of the study include the quantification of wastes, improvement in value-added percentage and lead time reduction. Research limitations/implications: The study was carried out in a single pharmaceutical company. The results of the study are deployable and can be functional in similar production organizations. Contrary to common VSMs that capture core production processes, this study provides strong insights that shall help design lean supply chains, especially in the pharmaceutical domain. This paper has also addressed the viability of the lean in the pharmaceutical warehouse and the reduction in lead time to improve demand forecasting, marketing and sales. Practical implications: The results of this study have indicated that a significant reduction in pharmaceutical warehouse supply chain lead time is possible as a result of the implementation of VSM from the supply chain’s perspective. Social implications: The insights from this study help in understanding the pharmaceutical supply chain risks and their outcomes. Originality/value: The paper reports a real-time study conducted in a warehouse of a pharmaceutical organization. Hence, the contributions are original.

Background: The expansion of oil palm agriculture across the nations, especially in countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, is growing at exacerbated levels. However, there is still a lack of awareness of the environmental, social, and economic challenges among the sector, ranging from the combination of ecological, economic, and ecosystem sustainability to the livelihoods of plantation workers and small holder communities. Small holders struggle to attain the primary standards on market governance, debt-free livelihood enhancements, certification norms, proper land rights and usage, outsourcing quality seeds, harvesting technologies, labor usage, etc. Method: There is a need to systematize the existing literature toward one that addresses the most fundamental and urgent questions that govern the palm oil small holder sustainability in the palm oil supply chain. The objective of this article is two-fold. One approach was to undertake an integrated systematic review and thematic scientific mapping of the last 10 years of research effort (2009–2020) on the specified research agenda, using data from the Web of Science (WoS) core collection database. Another objective was to gain insights and research direction. Results: The defined gaps and insights from the study helped to form the basis for developing a conceptual framework for achieving the sustainability and livelihood of small holders in the palm oil sector. Conclusions: There is a stringent need to focus on the sustainability factors of small holders in the palm oil upstream logistics to address and improve the overall efficiency of the supply chain.