Sustainable Logistics4.0: Digital and green skills for boosting innovation and sustainability of the logistics sector

Logistics investments in EU went up to 38.64 billion euros in 2020. However, Industry 4.0 and the COVID pandemic shocked and increased the fragility of logistics and supply chain industry, including logistics education. The main need addressed by Slog4.0 is to align logistics education learning programs with the high demand for skills in industry, whilst narrowing the gap to industrial needs in educational institutions. The logistics and supply chain sectors have several challenges they face. According to the Inbound Logistics 3PL Perspectives, the top 3 challenges are technology investment, finding, training, retaining qualified labour and corporate social responsibility including sustainability. As providers of skill and knowledge to the logistics workforce, the logistics educational institutions need to adjust the way students are trained to prepare them to be qualified for the future employment trends. This is the main need addressed by Slog4.0 and the reason that moved partners to develop the proposal. Therefore, the need was to find a gap between the qualifications of graduate students that the logistics industry needs and the ability of the current graduate students of the partners.

The aim of Slog4.0 was to train a new generation of advanced workers for the logistics sector, with a sustainability-oriented mindset referring to Industry 4.0, offering a new sustainable and environmentally friendly logistics education process with university-industry cooperation and an environmental approach. It was planned to increase the digital capacities of higher education institutions and to support sustainable and green logistics for the future reshaped by pandemic and climate sensitivity. During the project implementation partners planned to deliver: i) A set of Design Principles, on which to prepare the SLog4.0 curriculum. ii) A course with four Modules, as follows: 1. Logistics 4.0 in the smart society; 2. Sustainability in Logistics 4.0, 3. IIoT: adopting 4.0 for green logistics, 4. Green challenge, each one divided into chapters, mixing theory and practical activities. Specifically, Module 3 was expected to be fully dedicated to hands-on activities on the topic of IoT. Finally, module (4.) was planned to give the students the possibility of putting into practice all the knowledge and skills acquired in the course and present the proposed solution to the companies.

Slog4.0 included 5 Work Packages. The project started with the developments of project management, coordination, risk and quality assurance plans within WP1. WP2 defined the design principles and the curriculum for the sustainable logistics 4.0 training course, intended as the principles on which to build the multidisciplinary curriculum (topics, learning outcomes, duration, etc.) later in WP3-4. Within WP3, the training materials and assessment criteria of the course were designed. The course is composed of different modules, each one focusing on a different domain (Module 1. Industry 4.0 technologies; 2. Sustainability in Logistics; 3. Digital skills and IIoT competencies and hands-on activities). It included the design and creation of the collaborative e-learning platform, the creation of the training content and of the coaching methodology for solving the Green Challenge (Module 4). Within WP4 the course was tested as a pilot application and the final output was delivered. The project encompassed dissemination activities (WP5), to enable the spreading of the project’s results (social media and dedicated webpage); to maximise their impact and gather an epistemic community referring to the project topics.

The project result is filling the mismatch between the logistics sector and academic institutions. list of outputs: WP2: • Overview on the training offer in the fields of logistics and related needs • Report on the training need analysis • Validated list of Design Principles and set of recommendations • Finalised list of Sustainable Logistic 4.0 course Design Principles • Sustainable Logistic 4.0 Curriculum WP3: • Collaborative e-learning platform • Training material Action Plan and questionnaires for learners • E-learning training materials for all Modules • Assessment criteria for all Modules • Coaching methodology for Green Challenge • Final version of learning materials WP4: • National reports on pilots and coaching activities on Green Challenges • Recognised open badges on all Modules • Green challenges proposed solutions • Evaluation Report on learners' feedback • Finalised version of the training materials and platform • Handbook WP5: • Dissemination and Exploitation Plan • Project website • Social media channels • Collection of real challenges from companies • Strategy for recruiting students • National and International conferences • Scientific papers Sustainability Plan and creation of a community of practice