Procurement 4.0: factors influencing the digitisation of procurement and supply chains

By Florian Bienhaus, Abubaker Haddud. Business Process Management Journal, 2018

327 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Purpose While digitisation is a key driver of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0); organisations have different approaches to deal with this topic to get a clearer picture of the opportunities and challenges concerning the digital transformation. The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of digitisation on procurement and its role within the area of supply chain management. The research will also explore potential barriers to digitising procurement and supply chains and ways to overcome them. Finally, the significance of potential enabling technologies to the digitisation will also be examined. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative approached utilising an online survey was used to collect the primary data for this study. Data were collected from 414 participants directly involved with procurement or related business functions and work for different organisations in different industries. The survey included eight items about the impact of digitisation on organisational performance in the area of procurement and supply chains; ten items related to key barriers to digitisation of organisations and ways to overcome them; and seven items about enabling technologies to leverage procurement procedures and processes digitisation. All of these items utilised the Likert five-point level of agreement scale. Findings The findings indicate that digitisation of procurement process can yield several benefits including: supporting daily business and administrative tasks, supporting complex decision-making processes, procurement will become more focussed on strategic decisions and activities, procurement will become a strategic interface to support organisational efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability, and supporting the creation of new business models, products, and services. The authors were also able to confirm that there are barriers to digitising procurement process and supply chains and such barriers found in existing procedures, processes, capacities, and capabilities. Finally, the significance of a number of enabling technologies to the digitisation process was revealed. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind with participants located world-wide. Industry 4.0 as a topic had been explored within different business areas and functions but very limited research specifically explored potential impact, barriers, and enabling technologies of procurement 4.0. The results can be beneficial for organisations already implemented Industry 4.0 or planning to do so. The study can also benefit academic scholars interested in the researched topic, business professionals, organisations within different sectors, and any other party interested in understanding more the concept of procurement 4.0.

Subfields: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Management Information Systems

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e11cec79cf414ecdd9ac7a88910d11fb7cafb8e4

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Citations in the corpus

The adoption of digital technologies in supply chains: Drivers, process and impact (2021, background): “There is a greater need for cutting down the cost and improving efficiency in procurement, production, warehousing and logistics than before (Bienhaus and Haddud, 2018).”
Digital transformation in business and management research: An overview of the current status quo (2022, background): “Bienhaus and Haddud (2018) analyzed the role of digitization in procurement, and its role within the area of supply chain management, exploring potential barriers to digitizing procurement and supply chains, as well as ways to overcome them.”
The applications of Industry 4.0 technologies in manufacturing context: a systematic literature review (2020, background): “…instruments such as a service platform for coordinating regional manufacturing resources and achieving effective sharing and optimal allocations, even extended to multi-plants and logistics enterprises context (Bienhaus and Haddud 2018; Strandhagen, Alfnes, et al. 2017; Rao and Prasad2018).”