Digital technologies in the modern logistics and supply chain management

摘要

The aim of the article. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and specify the existing aspects of using different kinds of digital technologies in logistics and supply chain management in the current state of economic development and in the near future (in the digital economy) and to formulate our own view towards this problem, in particular, researching the use of digital technologies in different types of logistics. In addition, the majority of papers on this topic are foreign, thus this article is written to compensate for the lack of research on this topic in the domestic academia. The results of the analysis.The analysis done with the use of different sources towards spread of using digital technologies in logistics and supply chain management currently and in the near future has shown that the first place is taken by the Internet of Things that represents some kind of circulatory system of supply chains in digital economy, in which there is a circulation of data that can be effectively processed and stored by using the Big Data technology (placed second) and Cloud Computing (placed third). The fourth place in the rating of using digital technologies in logistics and supply chain management is taken by the Blockchain technology which can improve the correctness and reliability of storage the huge arrays of data. The sixth place is taken by the Robots, and the seventh is given to Artificial Intelligence, which can replace a person in such logistic activities with the significant amount of operations as manufacturing, transportation and warehouse logistics and become a base for the cyber-physical systems and the systems that are able to learn and teach other machines. The eighth place is taken by the Augmented and Virtual Reality technologies that can combine the real and the virtual worlds which can be helpful in order to increase the effectiveness of supply chain functionality. Despite the fact that the Sensors have taken the last place in the rating, they have a significant connection with others technologies and it can be assumed that they are not discussed, but they are meant to be. Conclusions and direction for further research. The research done has shown that technologies that are already associated with logistics information flows are the digital technologies which are currently being widely used either have the logistics companies interested in them or will become this way in the near future. This is caused by the fact that information in the digital economy is taken the special status, thus by using the information correctly a company can get the competitive advantage over other companies. The list of those technologies contains the following items: the Internet of Things, Big Data, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence, which can be used in all the types of functional spheres of logistics. Manufacturing, transportation, and warehouse logistics are the functional spheres of logistics where there are much more opportunities for the digital technologies to be used than in any other sphere. It can be assumed that the gotten results are not final and have debating nature. It is caused by the constant changes in the sphere of digital technologies as well as its rapid development and the elaborateness to adopt business processes to those rapid changes, among which it can be hard to identify the technologies which are indeed essential in a way that they are able to make changes in the functionality of logistic processes, and those which are not able to give a company that much value. In further research it is worthwhile to discover the use of digital technologies deeper for each kind of logistics and for elements of supply chain separately and to lead the extensive domestic researches towards using digital technologies in logistics and supply chain management etc. Keywords: logistics, supply chain, digital economy, digital transformation, digital technologies, the Internet of Things. DOI: 10.15276/mdt.2.3.2018.