Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 24 ISSUE 3
Written by Daniela TANHUA, Elviira Olga TUOMI, Katri KESTI, Brian OGILVIE, Carolina DELGADO SAHAGÚN, Joaquín Nicolas Adiego RODRÍGUEZ, Javier PAJARES, Larry BANVILLE, Leticia ARCUSIN, Marijana BLAZIC, Florian MAURER, Natalia MARTÍN CRUZ, Peadar CASEY, Oana Bianca OPREA, Romulus GRUIA, Agatha POPESCU, Liviu GACEU

The advent of Industry 4.0, marked by the integration of cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced data analytics, is revolutionizing the logistics industry. The paper proposes to use a survey developed and provided by the Research group Logistics and Alliances of the HAN University of Applied Sciences (the Netherlands). The survey was edited in March and April of 2023 and used from April 2023 to February 2024. Participants were from six partners in Europe (Finland, Spain, Ireland, Croatia, Romania, Austria) and one in Argentina. Students from all partnering universities interviewed their chosen case companies. The questions were categorized in the next sections: Background questions; Organization questions; Competencies; Tools and applications; Ranking; Company’s performance compared to others. Results shows that the digitalization process in companies has started, with significant improvements in companies profit and customer satisfaction. From an organizational point of view, about 10% of companies consider themselves "Analytics as a business vision" and 20-25% are in the "data-driven organization" phase. Excel remains the most used tool for data processing, but there are preparations for integrated ERP applications in the digital management of companies. The results of the study are also confirmed by other analyses carried out by other institutions such as the Digital Maturity Assessment (DMA) tool of the European Digital Innovation Hubs Network, KPMG or BDC, and underlines the opportunity and importance of integrated digitization efforts of companies, as well as the need for standardized applications both in the field of local data processing and in international logistics chains.

[Read full article] [Citation]