The Role of Emerging Information Technologies in Manufacturing Traceability – Trends, Challenges, and Future Directions

Abstract

Industry 4.0 and Information Technology (IT) are nowadays heavily used in manufacturing companies to enhance traceability across entire supply chains. Traceability is a capability of: (i) tracing from where the goods come from, (ii) where they are at a given time, and (iii) how they are used. Therefore, traceability plays a crucial role in terms of efficiency, quality control, and legal requirements. 
This paper attempts to investigate the use of IT based traceability systems which are now playing vital role in manufacturing sector. It also attempts to examine the key benefits and obstacles that companies encounter when implementing these systems and what might follow in future. We identify five key trends through expert surveys and a literature survey that are technology adoption, strategic advantages, implementation challenges, industry practices, and future developments. Above led to establish that emerging technologies such as IoT, cloud systems, and AI are now widely spreading as they provide real time information and support data driven decisions making. Nonetheless, tools like ERP and MES are still very popular because they are the core framework of many operations. Meanwhile, blockchain and digital twins are not yet widely adopted due to high costs and integration challenges that are preventing their expansion. This paper also highlights industry-wide differences; however, traceability technologies are adopted more quickly in regulated sectors. 
Manufacturers are now also becoming increasingly digitized while tech-companies and regulators are looking to implement better traceability measures. However, there remain huge challenges, such as inadequate technical proficiency, threats of cyber-attacks, unclean data and challenges in sharing data across systems. From these issues, it requires secure, scalable, and intelligent traceability solutions. Going forward, combining the new technology with the old systems will be significant and a well-balanced solution.