Perspectives on Real-Time Information Sharing through Smart Factories: Visibility via Enterprise Integration

As per the Industry 4.0 vision, it is well established that 'Enterprise Integration' by inter-organizational collaboration in a supply chain can achieve competitive advantage for all the parties. However, not much study is done on the tools at the manufacturer's end that enable the real-time information sharing in between the integrated enterprises. This paper explores the role of manufacturing information systems (beyond ERP layer) to define the scope/role of smart factories to enhance 'visibility' (supply chain visibility). The findings contributed to developing a hypothesis that manufacturing operations management (MOM) systems, especially manufacturing execution systems (MES) of smart factories at 'manufacturer' can provide critical product-centric data to the 'wholesaler', thus enhancing supply chain performance. This position paper gives insights into the 'real-time information sharing' in the fresh food supply chain, by presenting the perspectives of both manufacturer (with MOM systems) and the wholesaler (with needs on real-time production data regarding shipments). Furthermore, it provides a conceptual model illustrating the scope of smart factories towards the manufacturing digitalization. Analysis explored through case example of a Danish meat manufacturer to investigate how MES tool can aid 'planning'. In addition, the paper also sets the agenda for future research in this area