Architectural Design for Special Load Carriers as Smart Objects in a Cloud-based Service System

Current research approaches within the area of logistics focus on smart objects and cyber physical systems to increase transparency and collect data for the optimization of processes. Due to the challenges of cross-company usage and missing standardization, special load carriers are mostly neglected, even though container loops are still lacking transparency. Problems that result from insufficient transparency in supply chains, e.g. for the automotive industry, including under-and overstocks or even the stop of production due to missing or damaged containers. To address this shortage of transparency, this paper presents an architectural design that allows the cross-company collection, analysis and provision of process-relevant data from smart and modular special load carriers within a supply chain. The containers are commensurately equipped with sensors and communication technologies to enable innovative financial, load-carrier-based and data-based services. Based on this architecture, a cloud-based service system can be implemented that enables data driven services along the supply chain for all participants to increase transparency of supply chain processes and raise optimization potentials. The proposed architectural design leaves room for further integration of smart objects along the supply chain and can easily be adapted for different scenarios.