How digitalization can enhance the efficiency of the project supply chain

Digitalization has been identified as a major trend affecting the society and the business both in short and long term. Even though there are multiple studies about the benefits of digitalization for supply chains, the main focus has been on supply chains with relatively high product quantities and predictable demand for products. However, in a project supply chain the quantity of products is relatively low (unique products) and demand is unpredictable. Therefore, this study examined how digitalization can enhance seamless material flows and sufficient information sharing in a project supply chain which ultimately leads to enhanced efficiency of the whole project supply chain. Furthermore, this study identified main obstacles for seamless information flow and sufficient information sharing. In the literature review, the supply chain management theory was covered and it suitability to project context was considered to identify the characteristics of a project supply chain, and what are the main obstacles for sufficient information sharing and seamless material flows in a project supply chain. Furthermore, the impacts of digitalization for supply chains were examined and suitability of digital technologies and applications to improve information and materials flows in a project supply chain was considered. The empirical study mainly consists of semi-constructed interviews with the case company’s key personnel involved in the project business and three subcontractors from the Baltics were also interviewed. The interviews revealed main issues related to material flows and information sharing in the case company`s recent projects. Additional primary data was gathered from the case company’s systems and from informal discussion with the employees. In this research, lack of material flow coordination between supply chain members, insufficient procurement planning and manual material flow processes and lack of material traceability and material identification were identified as main obstacles for seamless material flows in a project supply chain. The main problems for sufficient information sharing in a project supply chain were lack of trust between supply chain members, different information systems and lack of interoperability, poor supply chain visibility, too many emails and manual data collection. Based on the literature research and the empirical study, main digital technologies to enable prompt information sharing and increased efficiency in the project supply chains are: robotic process automation (RPA), Cloud computing (SaaS), Quick Response (QR) codes and radio-frequency identification (FRID) technology. One of the main benefit of digitalization for a supply chain is increased supply chain visibility. Therefore, one possible future research topic could be how digitalization can enhance the real-time visibility of outsourced manufacturing and what kind digital technologies support real-time remote manufacturing progress monitoring