Big data for supply chain management: Opportunities and challenges

For modern industry, data generated by machines and devices, product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions, production planning systems or quality and inventory management systems has reached a volume of more than a thousand Exabyte annually and is expected to increase in the next years. This has led to the need of “Big Data” which originally referred to the huge flood of data, has extended the scope of technological capability to store, manage, process, interpret, and visualize the amount of data. This paper outlines the value that Big data offers for supply chains that are increasingly complex. Indeed, Big data have the potential to revolutionize supply chain dynamics. In this article, we analyze Big data applications, their opportunities and challenges in the different supply chain processes.