March 2021, Suez Canal: The Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, runs aground on the shore, becomes wedged, and blocks the waterway. As a result, more than 300 cargo ships are stuck on both sides of the canal. Millions of tons of goods—from electronics to clothing—are unable to reach their destination. The refloating operation becomes a spectacle: with tugboats, excavators, and the help of a spring tide, the 400-meter giant is finally freed after six days. The economic damage runs into the billions. The blockade shows how fragile international supply chains are – and how heavily our production systems depend on smooth global processes.
This episode was not an isolated case. A year earlier, COVID-19 had shown how sensitive modern value chains can be. “During the pandemic, many supply chains broke down,” recalls Mohamed Osman from the Institute of Logistics and Business Management at the Technical University of Hamburg. He works in Prof. Thorsten Blecker's team and, together with his colleague Chema Abdennadher, focuses on the interface between technology and business models. “Simple electronic components or standard mechanical parts were suddenly no longer available – and that brought entire production lines to a standstill.”
Building a network for crises
New approaches are needed to better deal with such uncertainties. This is where the EU research project MAASive comes in, in which the Technical University of Hamburg is collaborating with Aalborg University, the Politecnico di Milano, and the École Centrale de Nantes. The project aims to make value-added networks more crisis-proof, flexible, and intelligent – through the use of digitally networked manufacturing services, known as Manufacturing as a Service. In the event of a bottleneck, companies should not have to spend weeks searching for new suppliers, but should be able to access a network that suggests alternative providers, arranges suitable manufacturing capacities, and integrates them into operational processes. This can be achieved through a modular software platform. First, the research team programmed a digital tool as the basis for on-demand manufacturing. It constantly records available production capacities within a network. “If a company needs a milling machine or short-term injection molding capacities, it can simply book them via the system,” explains Osman. “It's like being able to order production services as easily as you can order a ride from a mobility service provider today.”
Possible disruptions are simulated
But MAASive goes even further. At the same time, the project partners are developing a simulation toolkit that companies can use to run through possible disruptions and test their production processes for risks. What happens if a supplier fails? How severely does a transport delay affect a particular product line? “This simulation allows companies not only to improve their resilience, but also to plan for it in a targeted manner,” explains Osman. “You could call it a digital stress test for the supply chain.”
The third component is network orchestration software – a system that ensures transparency and supports operational decisions. Among other things, it involves prioritizing orders, coordinating between multiple partners, or automatically redistributing orders when a disruption occurs. “It's not enough to know who can produce,” explains Mohamed Osman. “The key is to intelligently orchestrate these capacities in real time.”
Read the entire article in the current issue of spektrum (in german).
