DIGITAL TWINS FOR SUSTAINABILITY PURPOSES IN LOGISTICS INDUSTRY: A LITERATURE REVIEW

ABSTRACT. Background: The concept of digital twins has been gaining popularity in various industries due to its potential to enhance performance, optimise operations, and reduce costs. Digital twins have shown promising results in improving sustainability in the logistics industry by providing a virtual replica of the logistics activities, processes, systems, equipment or machinery, enabling real-time monitoring, promoting collaboration, and integrating with other technologies. Digital twins can, among others, reduce, optimise, and minimise various costs in logistics activities. This paper’s purpose was to explore and analyse the current state of research literature on the implementation of digital twins in logistics for sustainability purposes.

Methods: The paper utilises a structured bibliometrics and systematic literature review methodology to answer these questions and follows the PRISMA methodology. Scopus and Web of Science were used to identify previous research on this topic with the search string (sustainab* AND logistic* AND “digital twin*”). Research that included theoretical or practical digital twin applications for increasing logistics’ sustainability was analysed from a basic bibliometrics viewpoint and then systematically reviewed to determine and interpret the significance of digital twins’ implementation for the sustainability of the logistics industry. An emphasis was given to the means of digital twin implementation, its scope, and the sustainability aspects (environmental, social, and economic) that the research and consequent implementations target.

Results: The main goal was to identify how scientific literature views the potential impact of digital twins on the sustainable development of the logistics industry and to acquaint the reader with a coherent collection of relevant research from the researched field. Among 47 documents, only 18 met the inclusion criteria for further bibliometrics and content analysis. Unfortunately, only a few publications directly presented digital twins' use for increasing sustainable aspects of logistics activities.

Conclusions: The number of publications regarding digital twins in logistics is increasing, but to a large extent they are not concerned with practical implementation. The latter testifies to the degree and extent of literature on digital twins' integration and implementation for sustainability in the logistics industry still being scarce.