An overview of big data analytics application in supply chain management published in 2010-2019

Abstract

Paper aims

This study reviews the available literature regarding big data analytics applications in supply chain management and provides insight on topics that received a good deal of attention and topics that still require investigation. This review considers the expansion of big data analytics in supply chain management from 2010 to 2019.

Originality

Beyond displaying the increasing frequency of using big data analytics in supply chain management, the authors also aim to develop a useful categorization of applying business analytics in supply chain management and define opportunities for future research in the field.

Research method

This paper briefly discusses big data applications in supply chain management. Four common steps in review papers are performed: collecting articles (Thomson Reuters Web of Science), descriptive analysis, defining categories, and evaluating the material.

Main findings

According to both information technology development trends and the availability of data, more companies are using big data analytics in their supply chains. About 60% of the research on big data applications in supply chain management were published after 2017. These publications have increasingly focused on big data applications in predictive analysis, rather than in the other three types of data analysis: descriptive analysis, diagnostic analysis, and prescriptive analysis.

Implications for theory and practice

This review shows that the collected data by many companies can be analyzed using big data analytics methods to develop the business growth plan, market direction forecast, manufacturing process simulation, delivery optimization, inventory management, and marketing and sales processes, among many other activities in a supply chain. The number of articles using case studies in the literature is greater than the number of theoretical publications. This shows that big data analytics has now been properly developed for practical applications, rather than just being a theoretical concept.

Keywords
Big data analytics; Business processes; Manufacturing systems; Logistics systems; Supply chain management