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The purpose of this paper is to propose a collaborative tracking and tracing (T&T) system that enables supply chain actors to join and leave the system in run-time without disrupting the function of the system.

A collaborative T&T system is introduced using a conceptual approach. Supporting empirical data are collected through a deductive case study of a Swedish automotive supply chain.

A collaborative T&T system based on composite and observer design patterns is an appropriate solution for inter-organizational T&T.

This research contributes to the body of knowledge in the field of logistics T&T. The conceptually developed collaborative T&T system needs to be validated empirically.

The collaborative T&T system developed conceptually here could be used as a model for the practical development of inter-organizational T&T systems.

The introduction of a collaborative T&T system, adopting the theories of software engineering and product data management, represents an original contribution to the field of T&T in logistics and transportation.

Information-sharing and flexibility are considered to be major tools for risk mitigation and supply chain resiliency. However, less light has been shed on the role of information-sharing as an enabler to utilize flexibility capabilities before and after supply chain disruptions. The aim of this paper is to provide indications on how digitalized information-sharing (DIS) enhances flexibility capability utilization.

The methodology follows a qualitative approach, including 31 transcribed semi-structured interviews with supply chain experts in Germany and Japan.

The findings indicate that DIS supports flexibility capability utilization in pre- and post-disruptive supply chain management. First, the enhancement of estimated transport time accuracy supports rapid supplier and transport mode adjustment. Second, while the effects of DIS in manufacturing are limited without pre-existing flexibility capabilities, steady internal and external DIS utilizes exciting manufacturing flexibility to cope with disruptions beyond production. Third, track and trace technologies enhance the value of shared data and allow flexibility in the form of demand-oriented distribution, but companies unable to adopt technologies can still enhance flexibility capabilities with DIS using the existing infrastructure.

This paper highlights the essential role of digital information-sharing for flexibility utilization in supply chain risk management. While existing studies engaged with flexibility and information-sharing in supply chain risk management, this study contributes by emphasizing digital information-sharing as a key triggering enabler for flexibility in pre- and post-disruptive phases.

The main aim of the research is to shed light on the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in the logistics innovation process of small and medium‐sized third party logistics providers (3PLs).

A triangulated research strategy was designed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The former involved the use of a questionnaire survey of small and medium‐sized Italian 3PLs with 153 usable responses received. The latter comprised a series of focus groups and the use of seven case studies.

There is a relatively low level of ICT expenditure with few companies adopting formal technology investment strategies. The findings highlight the strategic importance of supply chain integration for 3PLs with companies that have embarked on an expansion of their service portfolios showing a higher level of both ICT usage and information integration. Lack of technology skills in the workforce is a major constraint on ICT adoption. Given the proliferation of logistics‐related ICT tools and applications in recent years it has been difficult for small and medium‐sized 3PLs to select appropriate applications.

The paper provides practical guidelines to researchers in the effective use of mixed‐methods research based on the concept of methodological triangulation. In particular, it shows how questionnaire surveys, focus groups and case study analysis can be used in combination to provide insights into multi‐faceted supply chain phenomena. It also identifies several potentially fruitful avenues for future research in this specific field.

The paper's findings provide useful guidance for practitioners on the effective adoption of ICT as part of the logistics innovation process. The findings also provide support for ICT vendors in the design of ICT solutions that are aligned to the needs of small 3PLs.

There is currently a paucity of research into the drivers and inhibitors of ICT in the innovation processes of small and medium‐sized 3PLs. This paper fills this gap by exploring the issue using a range of complementary research approaches.

Supply chain visibility (SCV) is vital where supply chain (SC) partners must have access to information regarding materials within the SC. This is particularly important in regulated industries where government or industry regulators require additional SC‐related information. An argument is presented that in regulated industries there is a requisite level of visibility that should be assessed. The purpose of this paper is to identify and organise the components of requisite supply chain visibility (RSCV), producing simple concepts that could lay the foundation to assess the requisite level of visibility.

Drawing on previous research into, and definitions of SCV, this paper builds a definition for RSCV. A project where RSCV is applied as a concept is then presented as a case. The Swiss firm Jet Aviation, its logistics provider Fiege, its equipment suppliers, and involved logistics agents are the participants in the case.

Requisite SCV in regulated environments can be perceived as dependent upon a firm's strategic orientation, partner capabilities, the need for SC compliance to regulations, the desire for operational flexibility and issues within the environment in which the SC operates. The case suggests that a capabilities, rather than outcomes‐based, approach has merit.

Findings are limited by the context of the case, but are applicable using an analytical generalization to highly regulated industries. A specific method for measuring RSCV is needed, and further research is progressing in this area.

Using the RSCV concept to manage large‐scale SCV initiatives can help firms in highly regulated industries identify the critical factors that increase or limit their SCV. The case suggests that when implementing an IT solution for RSCV, networkability across the SC partners is a key limiting factor.

There is limited research into the role of regulation and compliance in SCV. This is one of the first pieces of research to consider requisite SCV. It proposes a SC specific configurable assessment concept, and presents a unique case in SCV.

While the three lines model (TLM) provides an organizational structure to execute risk and control duties, research and practice show limitations in the model's implementation. These limitations result in governance issues. Such issues, together with control weaknesses, could be addressed by leveraging properties of distribution, transparency, and immutability of blockchain technology. To this end, in this paper the authors propose a conceptual control framework based on blockchain technology to augment control practice.

The design of the resulting blockchain-based control framework (BBCF) and its prototype, based on the design science research methodology (DSRM), is presented and discussed in terms of the potential impact in the context of the identified problems within the TLM.

One potential outcome of BBCF could be to redefine the scope and boundaries of some of the activities in audit and control practices from a more static to a more dynamic and prospective role. In a larger context of improving governance practices, the BBCF could set the path for a more inclusive and participatory interaction between the different governance actors of an organization.

However, this assumes that blockchain is more widely adopted despite its complexity and rigidity.

BBCF covering both a conceptual model design and a reference implementation provides an innovation in audit and control. BBCF could include all relevant stakeholders who have an interest in corporate governance and control activities, including the regulators.

The contribution intends to serve both as a starting point for discussing the evolution of audit and control practice based on blockchain technology, as well as an initial actionable prototype for experimentation and further development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine (1) how the recovery speed using promotional investment and (2) distributed production using additive manufacturing (AM) improve the resilience of the supply chain to manage any disruptions in the diffusion of green products.

The environmental performance, service level performance and economic performance are the measures of interest. These measures are studied through the integration of inventory and production planning (I&PP) of the reverse logistics system and consumer behavior using Bass (1969) model of diffusion of innovation under the paradigm of Industry 4.0 architecture. The Taguchi experimental design framework was used for the simulation analysis.

The adoption patterns based on the Bass model in conjunction with recovery speed and production on AM during the disruption period suggest that there exist tradeoff decisions between various combinations of information-sharing and I&PP policies.

The extensive sensitivity analyses provide real-time support for managerial decisions. Besides the potentials of Industry 4.0 capabilities, the present research suggests paying close attention to the recovery speed in conjunction with the inventory management system.

The integration of consumers' behavior (Bass model) to digital technologies is an additional contribution of the present research toward sustainability issues from the social perspective.

Previous research studies have discussed resilience to manage the ripple effect. However, none of them have addressed the changing scope of resilience to manage the ripple effect caused by the disruption in the diffusion of green products in a reverse logistics setup.

In today's supply chain management practices, a successful strategy depends increasingly on the performance of third party logistics (3PLs) providers as they play a key integrative role linking the different supply chain elements more effectively. Information and communications technology (ICT) has become an important element of 3PL competitive capability as it enables higher levels of supply chain integration. Recent industry developments have widened the technological gap between large and small 3PLs. This is critical particularly for those markets populated by a large number of small 3PLs such as the Italian logistics industry. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of ICT adoption in small logistics service providers. The focus of the study is the Italian 3PL market.

The methodology adopted in this paper is based on the action research framework and it is a combination of theoretical analysis and empirical findings (focus groups and surveys). Firstly, a literature review on ICT dissemination in the international and Italian 3PL industry has been carried out. Then, a field survey has been developed preceded by two focus groups. The empirical investigation examined a sample of 153 small Italian 3PLs on the base of a definition and taxonomy proposed by the authors.

The results provide a useful technological profile of the surveyed companies, as well as an analysis of the role of ICT in customising services and of the factors influencing ICT adoption.

To give a more robust scientific justification of the survey results, it would be useful to carry out an additional large‐scale analysis including other countries with a high presence of small logistics service companies. Furthermore, a complementary case‐study analysis would be of help in defining the role of specific factors in different types of 3PL. Further investigations in this field are needed to better understand innovation paths, and how ICT can improve the competitive capabilities of 3PLs and of the wider supply chain.

Managers of small 3PLs can use the findings to set‐up guidelines for improving a company's technology innovation. Technology vendors can use the findings to better market their service/product into the small logistics service provider segment.

Despite the fact that much has been written about the dissemination of ICT, there is still a shortage of research in the field of small 3PLs with little empirical investigation into the usage of ICT by small 3PLs. This paper provides a contribution to filling this void and suggests some possible research directions.

Employing a fog computing (FC) network system in the robotic network system is an effective solution to support robotic application issues. The interconnection between robotic devices through an FC network can be referred as the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT). Although the FC network system can provide number of services closer to IoRT devices, it still faces significant challenges including real-time tracing services and a secure tracing services. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a tracking mobile robot devices in a secure and private manner, with high efficiency performance, is considered essential to ensuring the success of IoRT network applications.

This paper proposes a secure anonymous tracing (SAT) method to support the tracing of IoRT devices through a FC network system based on the Counting Bloom filter (CBF) and elliptic curve cryptography techniques. With the proposed SAT mechanism, a fog node can trace a particular robot device in a secure manner, which means that the fog node can provide a service to a particular robot device without revealing any private data such as the device's identity or location.

Analysis shows that the SAT mechanism is both efficient and resilient against tracing attacks. Simulation results are provided to show that the proposed mechanism is beneficial to support IoRT applications over an FC network system.

This paper represents a SAT method based on CBF and elliptic curve cryptography techniques as an efficient mechanism that is resilient against tracing attacks.

The functionality and reliability of an overhauled aero-engine is determined by all configuration changes in the overhaul process. Identifying, recording, auditing, tracking and tracing of configuration modifications are significant and meaningful. Considering the barriers to these goals, this paper aims to put forward an approach to configuration management in the aero-engine overhaul process.

The overhaul configuration management model is proposed to describe an aero-engine’s configuration evolution trajectory in the overhaul process. The controlling and auditing procedures are put forward to control and audit parts’ return-to-zero statuses and overproof statuses. And some searching algorithms are also designed to enable tracking and tracing of the configuration status along the time coordinate, or get a snapshot of an aero-engine’s configuration at a certain time. The above model, procedures and algorithms have been implemented and adopted to fulfill the configuration management requirements in the aero-engine overhaul process.

The approach is effective in identifying, recording, controlling, auditing, tracking and tracing configuration changes in the overhaul process.

The approach’s implementation and adoption present a practical example for aero-engines’ configuration management issue in the overhaul process.

The work proposes an original aero-engine configuration management solution for the overhaul process and enables a reliable and accurate configuration management mode.

A wide number of technologies are currently in store to harness the challenges posed by pandemic situations. As such diseases transmit by way of person-to-person contact or by any other means, the World Health Organization had recommended location tracking and tracing of people either infected or contacted with the patients as one of the standard operating procedures and has also outlined protocols for incident management. Government agencies use different inputs such as smartphone signals and details from the respondent to prepare the travel log of patients. Each and every event of their trace such as stay points, revisit locations and meeting points is important. More trained staffs and tools are required under the traditional system of contact tracing. At the time of the spiralling patient count, the time-bound tracing of primary and secondary contacts may not be possible, and there are chances of human errors as well. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to propose an algorithm called SemTraClus-Tracer, an efficient approach for computing the movement of individuals and analysing the possibility of pandemic spread and vulnerability of the locations.

Pandemic situations push the world into existential crises. In this context, this paper proposes an algorithm called SemTraClus-Tracer, an efficient approach for computing the movement of individuals and analysing the possibility of pandemic spread and vulnerability of the locations. By exploring the daily mobility and activities of the general public, the system identifies multiple levels of contacts with respect to an infected person and extracts semantic information by considering vital factors that can induce virus spread. It grades different geographic locations according to a measure called weightage of participation so that vulnerable locations can be easily identified. This paper gives directions on the advantages of using spatio-temporal aggregate queries for extracting general characteristics of social mobility. The system also facilitates room for the generation of various information by combing through the medical reports of the patients.

It is identified that context of movement is important; hence, the existing SemTraClus algorithm is modified by accounting for four important factors such as stay point, contact presence, stay time of primary contacts and waypoint severity. The priority level can be reconfigured according to the interest of authority. This approach reduces the overwhelming task of contact tracing. Different functionalities provided by the system are also explained. As the real data set is not available, experiments are conducted with similar data and results are shown for different types of journeys in different geographical locations. The proposed method efficiently handles computational movement and activity analysis by incorporating various relevant semantics of trajectories. The incorporation of cluster-based aggregate queries in the model do away with the computational headache of processing the entire mobility data.

As the trajectory of patients is not available, the authors have used the standard data sets for experimentation, which serve the purpose.

This paper proposes a framework infrastructure that allows the emergency response team to grab multiple information based on the tracked mobility details of a patient and facilitates room for various activities for the mitigation of pandemics such as the prediction of hotspots, identification of stay locations and suggestion of possible locations of primary and secondary contacts, creation of clusters of hotspots and identification of nearby medical assistance. The system provides an efficient way of activity analysis by computing the mobility of people and identifying features of geographical locations where people travelled. While formulating the framework, the authors have reviewed many different implementation plans and protocols and arrived at the conclusion that the core strategy followed is more or less the same. For the sake of a reference model, the Indian scenario is adopted for defining the concepts.