Business Strategy of the Value Chain

Dear Colleagues,

The adoption of innovative industry technologies is essential to the development of manufacturing processes, which include devices, machines, and production modules that are able to independently exchange, trigger information, and control such actions, thus enabling an intelligent environment [1]. Industrial digitization (Industry 4.0) requires one to rethink the role of former production skills, and various elements of value creation throughout the entire company [2].

The structure of different value chains depends on firms’ business strategies, implementation, and corporate traditions. The value related to a product (or service) is the foundation for every company to survive [3]. The importance of structuring business activities approved not only into physical but into a digital value chain is to monitor the whole process of creation and to perform sustainable product development [4]. Overall, accessing real-time data from these points of view has a positive influence on strategy, finance, business networks, and process design and also provides transparency to supply chain process contributing to system-oriented thinking and integration within firms and beyond organizational boundaries [5].

Potential topics include but are not limited to strategic issues, business and value-chain management, trust, industrial engineering, renewable and sustainable food and energy, and circular economy.

References (optional)

1. Weyer, S.; Schmitt, M.; Ohmer, M.; Gorecky, D. Towards industry 4.0 - Standardization as the crucial challenge for highly modular, multi-vendor production systems. IFAC-PapersOnLine 2015, 28, 579–584, doi:10.1016/j.ifacol.2015.06.143.

2. Heppelmann, J. E.; Porter, M. How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition. Harv. Bus. Rev. 2014, 11, 64–88.

3. Nagy, J.; Oláh, J.; Erdei, E.; Máté, D.; Popp, J. The Role and Impact of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things on the Business Strategy of the Value Chain—The Case of Hungary. Sustainability 2018, 10, 3491, doi:10.3390/su10103491.

4. Rayport, J. F.; Sviokla, J. J. Exploiting the Virtual Value Chain. Harv. Bus. Rev. 1995, 73, 75-.

5. Ilie-Zudor, E.; Kemény, Z.; Van Blommestein, F.; Monostori, L.; Van Der Meulen, A. A survey of applications and requirements of unique identification systems and RFID techniques. Comput. Ind. 2011, 62, 227–252, doi:10.1016/j.compind.2010.10.004.

Dr. Domicián Máté
Dr. Judit Oláh
Guest Editors

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