Logistics as a Science – Central Research Questions in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Werner Delfmann , Michael ten Hompel , Wolfgang Kersten , Thorsten Schmidt , Wolfgang Stölzle

Original Paper Invited

First online: 28.08.2018

DOI: 10.23773/2018_9

Cite this article as: Delfmann, W., ten Hompel, M., Kersten, W., Schmidt, T., Stölzle, W., Logistics Research (2018) 11:9. doi:10.23773/2018_9

Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 denotes a fundamental change on how production and business in general is perceived and organized. This paper questions the role of logistics within this context and raises a claim for a central role in future. It is a revision of a current position of the Scientific Advisory Board of Bundesvereinigung Logistik (BVL). Based on the insight that Logistics 4.0 is a crucial element for the implementation of Industry 4.0 three hypotheses are derived. In further elaboration, the paper introduces a total of 11 key research questions that are of central importance to the research community.

Keywords

Logistics 4.0 Industry 4.0 Decentralization Digitization Human collaboration

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