Smart Supply Chains as Digital Value Creation Networks

Digital transformation in supply chains is commonly associated with the adoption of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and digital twins, which enhance visibility, traceability, and operational efficiency. However, when these technologies are integrated with additive manufacturing and platform-based coordination models, a deeper transformation emerges that affects the ontology of supply chains. This chapter argues that smart supply chains should not be understood merely as technologically enhanced linear systems, but also as digital value creation networks in which modular digital artifacts, distributed production, and recursive data flows reshape coordination. Drawing on a conceptual and doctrinal approach, the chapter shows how value is increasingly generated through the modification and recombination of digital artifacts rather than through sequential material flows. In these digitally mediated environments, design files, executable instructions, and data infrastructures become central organizing elements, enabling recursive interaction between design, production, and product use. The integration of additive manufacturing and digital platforms also allows production to become more distributed, flexible, and reconfigurable, reducing dependence on centralized structures and enabling new forms of coordination across network participants. In this perspective, the concept of supply chain smartness evolves beyond the optimization of information flows within linear structures to include the systemic capability of digitally mediated networks to learn, recombine, and continuously reconfigure value creation processes. The chapter therefore proposes a shift from a flow-based interpretation of supply chains toward an architectural and network-based perspective, highlighting the role of digital artifacts and learning dynamics in shaping emerging production ecosystems.