Smart cities. What impact does urbanization have on supply chain management? (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,5, Reutlingen University, language: English, abstract: According to UN projections, it is expected that 68% of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2050. This could add another 2.5 billion people to cities
around our globe. Additionally, the number of mega cities such as Tokyo, New Delhi and Shanghai is projected to increase from 33 today to 43 in 2030 (United Nations 2018). By looking at these numbers, we can observe a mega trend which will unquestionably shape our future. Due to urbanization, our cities face enhanced pressure to invest in urban infrastructure and to facilitate the flow of goods and people (Montes-Sancho et al. 2015). An increasing number of cities notably in the US, Europe and East Asia (see Illustration 1) currently adopt the concept of a socalled "smart city" in order to manage urbanization. For the economy this concept implies that especially supply chains will become a crucial part of a company's success. Without adapting supply chain designs to the new market conditions, our economy will produce more traffic congestion, higher carbon dioxide emissions and increased levels of noise and pollution (Reaves2018). Hence, the main challenge for supply chain management (SCM) is to establish a diligent infrastructure within cities while also ensuring sustainability and using existing technologies to increase efficiencies.