Software-Defined Mobile Supply Chains: Rebalancing Resilience and Efficiency in Production Systems

The miniaturization and modularization of production capacity brings with it not only greater agility and efficiency, but also increased flexibility in the form of mobility. This flexibility allows production capacity to be moved when and where it is most needed, generating new business opportunities, e.g., allowing modular units to be rented, leased, or shared. This flexibility, however, requires information and control systems that ensure a correct and secure flow of information between different stakeholders of the supply chain. Based on this, the present article characterizes the concept of software-defined mobile supply chains, presenting its main requirements, opportunities, and limitations. In addition, we present two case studies in which the proposed concept is evaluated in order to demonstrate its applicability. Here, due to the new optimization problems that arise when considering mobile facilities, special interest is given to the planning and control of the required operations, as well as the difficulties associated with the exchange of physical and intellectual assets between different stakeholders.