Abstract
In the logistics industry, digital twin technologies provide major improvements in supply chain management, warehouse operations and transportation processes by creating virtual copies of physical assets. Digital twins support faster and more accurate decisions by providing logistics companies with real-time data analysis. Digital twins are used in a wide range of areas in the logistics industry, from supply chain management to transportation and warehouse operations. For example, in a warehouse management system, digital twins create virtual models of physical warehouse spaces. This makes product placement, transportation processes and inventory tracking more efficient. With real-time data, warehouse operations are optimized and stock levels and transportation times can be predicted more accurately and effectively. In supply chain management, digital twins create a digital copy of the entire chain, making it possible to monitor and manage each stage of the processes more efficiently. In this way, supply chain disruptions can be identified in advance and solutions can be produced quickly. In addition, logistics companies can use digital twin technology for transport vehicles to optimize transport routes and identify vehicle maintenance needs in advance. The benefits of digital twins in the logistics industry include increased efficiency, cost reduction, real-time monitoring, sustainability and improved customer satisfaction. Thanks to digital twins, faster and more accurate decisions can be made by simulating logistics processes, as well as optimizing resources in transport and warehouse management. However, the implementation of digital twins faces barriers such as high start-up costs, integration challenges with existing systems, data security concerns, training requirements and data quality. By overcoming these challenges, the potential benefits of digital twins in the logistics industry can be fully realized. At this stage, some of the global industry leaders such as Amazon, DB Schenker, DHL, FedEx, Maersk have adopted digital twin technology. These companies, which are leaders in their sectors, have some advantages and important points that differentiate them from their competitors. This study examines the conceptual framework of digital twin technologies and examines how leading logistics companies integrate this technology into their systems. The aim of this study is to examine how some of the leading logistics companies in the industry apply digital twin technology in logistics and supply chain management, the objectives of these applications, the tangible achievements achieved and the challenges encountered; and to analyze these elements comparatively.
Keywords
References
- Agalianos, K., Ponis, S. T., Aretoulaki, E., Plakas, G., & Efthymiou, O. (2020). Discrete event simulation and digital twins: review and challenges for logistics. Procedia Manufacturing, 51, 1636-1641. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2020.10.228
- Amazon (2024a). Travers., E.,& Baeum M., AWS Simulation and Digital Twin to increase warehouse productivity https://aws.amazon.com/tr/blogs/supply-chain/aws-simulation-and-digital-twin-to-increase-warehouse-productivity/ (Erişim: 30.12.2024)
- Amazon (2024b). Dijital İkiz Teknolojisi nedir?, https://aws.amazon.com/tr/what-is/digital-twin/ (Erişim: 01.01.2025)
- Attaran, M., & Celik, B. G. (2023). Digital Twin: Benefits, use cases, challenges, and opportunities. Decision Analytics Journal, 6, 100165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dajour.2023.100165.
- Attaran, S., Attaran, M., & Celik, B. G. (2024). Digital Twins and Industrial Internet of Things: Uncovering operational intelligence in industry 4.0. Decision Analytics Journal, 10, 100398.
- Barachini, F., & Stary, C. (2022). From digital twins to digital selves and beyond: Engineering and social models for a trans-humanist world (p. 127). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96412-2.
- Crespo-Aguado, M., Lozano, R., Hernandez-Gobertti, F., Molner, N., & Gomez-Barquero, D. (2024). Flexible Hyper-Distributed IoT–Edge–Cloud Platform for Real-Time Digital Twin Applications on 6G-Intended Testbeds for Logistics and Industry. Future Internet, 16(11), 431. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16110431.
- DHL Logistics, (2024). Digital Twins, https://www.dhl.com/tr-en/home/innovation-in-logistics/logistics-trend-radar/digital-twins-supply-chain.html (Erişim Tarihi: 01.01.2025)
- DHL Logistics. (2024). The DHL Logistics Trend Radar 7.0 https://www.dhl.com/content/dam/dhl/global/csi/documents/pdf/glo-csi-logistics-trend-radar-7-0.pdf Espinosa-Jaramillo, M. T., Chenet Zuta, M. E., Koneti, C., Jayasundar, J. S., Olivares Zegarra, S. del R., & Carvajal- Ordoñez, V. F. M. (2024). Digital twins in supply chain operations: Bridging the physical and digital worlds using AI. Journal of Electrical Systems, 20(10s), 1764–1774.
- Farsi, M.; Daneshkhah, A.; Hosseinian-Far, A.; Jahankhani, H. (Eds.) Digital Twin Technologies and Smart Cities; Springer: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18732-3.
- Fedex (2021). FedEx office teams up with accenture and river logic to optimize its print production and delivery network, https://newsroom.fedex.com/newsroom/global/fedex-office-accenture-river-logic-optimize-print-production-and-delivery-network
- Fortino, G., & Savaglio, C. (2023). Integration of digital twins & internet of things. In The Digital Twin (pp. 205-225). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
- Grieves, M., & Vickers, J. (2017). Digital twin: Mitigating unpredictable, undesirable emergent behavior in complex systems. Transdisciplinary perspectives on complex systems: New findings and approaches, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38756-7_4.
- Hiverlab (2024). DB Schenker, Warehouse enhancements through Digital Twins https://hiverlab.com/db-schenker-digital-twin-case-study/ (Erişim: 28.12.2024)
- Hofmann, W., & Branding, F. (2019). Implementation of an IoT-and cloud-based digital twin for real-time decision support in port operations. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 52(13), 2104-2109.
- Jacoby, M., & Usländer, T. (2020). Digital twin and internet of things—Current standards landscape. Applied Sciences, 10(18), 6519. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10186519.
- Javaid, M., & Haleem, A. (2025). Role of digital twin and blockchain in logistics and supply chain management. In Digital Twin and Blockchain for Sensor Networks in Smart Cities (pp. 243-264). Elsevier.
- Le, T. V., & Fan, R. (2024). Digital twins for logistics and supply chain systems: Literature review, conceptual framework, research potential, and practical challenges. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 187, 109768. 85-113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2023.109768.
- Le, T. V., & Fan, R. (2024). Digital twins for logistics and supply chain systems: Literature review, conceptual framework, research potential, and practical challenges. Computers & industrial engineering, 187, 109768.
- Maersk (2021). Dotzer., E., Maersk Tankers uses vessels’ “digital twin” to slash emissions https://maersktankers.com/newsroom/maersk-tankers-uses-vessels-digital-twin-to-slash-emissions (Erişim Tarihi: 31.12.2024)
- Maersk (2023a). Laybourne, G., Transforming decision making in supply chain logistics with digital twins, https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/2023/01/20/transforming-decision-making-in-supply-chain-logistics-with-digital-twins (Erişim Tarihi: 31.12.2024)
- Maersk (2023b). Hofman., H., Four ways digital twins will shake up logistics, https://www.maersk.com/insights/digitalisation/2023/01/31/digital-twin (Erişim Tarihi: 31.12.2024).
- Maersk (2024). Sengupta, K. Unlocking the true potential of digital twins in supply chains, https://www.maersk.com/insights/digitalisation/2024/05/30/digital-twins-supply-chain (Erişim Tarihi: 01.01.2025) Pandey, A., Flam, R., Mohammed, R., & Kalidindi, A. (2023, December). Emulation and digital twin framework for the validation of material handling equipment in warehouse environments. In 2023 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC) (pp. 3250-3261). IEEE.
- Mayer, A., Greif, L., Häußermann, T. M., Otto, S., Kastner, K., El Bobbou, S., ... & Ovtcharova, J. (2025). Digital Twins, Extended Reality, and Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing Reconfiguration: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability, 17(5), 2318.
- Negueroles, S. C., Simón, R. R., Julián, M., Belsa, A., Lacalle, I., Raúl, S., & Palau, C. E. (2024). A Blockchain-based Digital Twin for IoT deployments in logistics and transportation. Future Generation Computer Systems, 158, 73-88.
- PR Newswire. (2019). DHL Trend Report: Implementation of Digital Twins to Significantly Improve Logistics Operations. PR Newswire US.
- Sharma, A., Kosasih, E., Zhang, J., Brintrup, A., & Calinescu, A. (2022). Digital twins: State of the art theory and practice, challenges, and open research questions. Journal of Industrial Information Integration, 30, 100383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2022.100383.
- Vashishth, T. K., Sharma, V., Sharma, K. K., Kumar, B., Chaudhary, S., & Panwar, R. (2025). Digital twins solutions for smart logistics and transportation. In Digital Twins for Smart Cities and Villages (pp. 353-376). Elsevier.
- Wu, D., Zheng, A., Yu, W., Cao, H., Ling, Q., Liu, J., & Zhou, D. (2025). Digital Twin Technology in Transportation Infrastructure: A Comprehensive Survey of Current Applications, Challenges, and Future Directions. Applied Sciences, 15(4), 1911. Zatuliveter, Y., & Fishchenko, E. (2024). Principles of Scaling Cloud Computing of Digital Twins Using Accelerator Computers with Mass Multi-Core Parallelism. In 2024 17th International Conference on Management of Large-Scale System Development (MLSD) (pp. 1-5). IEEE. Zhang, Y. (2024). Artificial Intelligence for Digital Twin. In: Digital Twin. Simula SpringerBriefs on Computing, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51819-5_3
Abstract
Lojistik sektöründe dijital ikiz teknolojileri, fiziksel varlıkların sanal kopyalarını oluşturarak tedarik zinciri yönetimi, depo işlemleri ve taşıma süreçlerinde büyük iyileştirmeler sağlamaktadır. Dijital ikizler, lojistik firmalarına gerçek zamanlı veri analizi imkânı sunarak daha hızlı ve isabetli kararlar alınmasını desteklemektedir. Dijital ikizler, lojistik sektöründe tedarik zinciri yönetiminden taşıma ve depo operasyonlarına kadar geniş bir alanda kullanılmaktadır. Örneğin, bir depo yönetim sisteminde dijital ikizler, fiziksel depo alanlarının sanal modellerini oluşturmaktadır. Bu sayede, ürünlerin yerleşimi, taşıma süreçleri ve envanter takibi daha verimli hale gelmektedir. Gerçek zamanlı veriler sayesinde depo operasyonları optimize edilmekte; stok seviyeleri ile taşıma süreleri daha doğru ve etkin bir şekilde tahmin edilebilmektedir. Tedarik zinciri yönetiminde dijital ikizler, zincirin tamamının dijital bir kopyasını oluşturarak süreçlerin her aşamasının izlenmesini ve daha verimli bir şekilde yönetilmesini mümkün kılmaktadır. Böylelikle, tedarik zincirindeki aksaklıkları önceden tespit edilmekte ve hızlı bir şekilde çözüm üretilebilmektedir. Ayrıca, lojistik firmaları taşıma araçları için dijital ikiz teknolojisini kullanarak taşıma rotalarını optimize edebilmekte ve araçların bakım ihtiyaçlarını önceden belirleyebilmektedir. Dijital ikizlerin lojistik sektöründeki faydaları arasında verimlilik artışı, maliyet azaltma, gerçek zamanlı izleme, sürdürülebilirlik ve müşteri memnuniyetinin iyileştirilmesi yer almaktadır. Dijital ikizler sayesinde, lojistik süreçlerini simüle ederek daha hızlı ve doğru kararlar alınmakta, aynı zamanda taşıma ve depo yönetimindeki kaynakları optimize edilmektedir. Ancak, dijital ikizlerin uygulanması yüksek başlangıç maliyetleri, mevcut sistemlerle entegrasyon zorlukları, veri güvenliği endişeleri, eğitim gereksinimleri ve veri kalitesi gibi engellerle karşı karşıyadır. Bu zorlukların aşılması ile dijital ikizlerin lojistik sektöründeki potansiyel faydalarından tam olarak yararlanılabilmektedir. Bu aşamada sektör liderlerinden Amazon, DB Schenker, DHL, FedEx, Maersk gibi bazı küresel firmalar dijital ikiz teknolojisini benimsemiştir. Sektöründe lider konumda olan bu firmaların sağladığı bazı avantajlar ve rakiplerinden ayrıştığı önemli hususlar vardır. Bu çalışmada, dijital ikiz teknolojilerinin kavramsal çerçevesi ele alınarak, lojistik sektörünün önde gelen firmalarının bu teknolojiyi sistemlerine nasıl entegre ettiği incelenmiştir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, sektöründe lider konumda bulunan bazı lojistik firmalarının dijital ikiz teknolojisini lojistik ve tedarik zinciri yönetiminde nasıl uyguladığını, bu uygulamaların hangi hedefler doğrultusunda yürütüldüğünü, elde edilen somut başarıları ve karşılaşılan zorlukları incelemek; bu unsurları karşılaştırmalı olarak analiz ederek, dijital ikizlerin lojistik sektöründeki potansiyel faydaları ile karşılaştığı temel zorlukları ortaya koymaktır. Dijital ikizlerin artışı ve yoğun kullanımı, lojistik firmasının verimliliğini arttırarak operasyonel süreçlerin daha verimli yürütülmesini sağlamaktadır. Bu sebeple dijital ikiz teknolojisini benimseyen firmaların sürdürülebilirlik, esneklik ve rekabet avantajı elde etmesi, böylece sektördeki yerini güçlendirmesi beklenmektedir.
Keywords
References
- Agalianos, K., Ponis, S. T., Aretoulaki, E., Plakas, G., & Efthymiou, O. (2020). Discrete event simulation and digital twins: review and challenges for logistics. Procedia Manufacturing, 51, 1636-1641. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2020.10.228
- Amazon (2024a). Travers., E.,& Baeum M., AWS Simulation and Digital Twin to increase warehouse productivity https://aws.amazon.com/tr/blogs/supply-chain/aws-simulation-and-digital-twin-to-increase-warehouse-productivity/ (Erişim: 30.12.2024)
- Amazon (2024b). Dijital İkiz Teknolojisi nedir?, https://aws.amazon.com/tr/what-is/digital-twin/ (Erişim: 01.01.2025)
- Attaran, M., & Celik, B. G. (2023). Digital Twin: Benefits, use cases, challenges, and opportunities. Decision Analytics Journal, 6, 100165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dajour.2023.100165.
- Attaran, S., Attaran, M., & Celik, B. G. (2024). Digital Twins and Industrial Internet of Things: Uncovering operational intelligence in industry 4.0. Decision Analytics Journal, 10, 100398.
- Barachini, F., & Stary, C. (2022). From digital twins to digital selves and beyond: Engineering and social models for a trans-humanist world (p. 127). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96412-2.
- Crespo-Aguado, M., Lozano, R., Hernandez-Gobertti, F., Molner, N., & Gomez-Barquero, D. (2024). Flexible Hyper-Distributed IoT–Edge–Cloud Platform for Real-Time Digital Twin Applications on 6G-Intended Testbeds for Logistics and Industry. Future Internet, 16(11), 431. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16110431.
- DHL Logistics, (2024). Digital Twins, https://www.dhl.com/tr-en/home/innovation-in-logistics/logistics-trend-radar/digital-twins-supply-chain.html (Erişim Tarihi: 01.01.2025)
- DHL Logistics. (2024). The DHL Logistics Trend Radar 7.0 https://www.dhl.com/content/dam/dhl/global/csi/documents/pdf/glo-csi-logistics-trend-radar-7-0.pdf Espinosa-Jaramillo, M. T., Chenet Zuta, M. E., Koneti, C., Jayasundar, J. S., Olivares Zegarra, S. del R., & Carvajal- Ordoñez, V. F. M. (2024). Digital twins in supply chain operations: Bridging the physical and digital worlds using AI. Journal of Electrical Systems, 20(10s), 1764–1774.
- Farsi, M.; Daneshkhah, A.; Hosseinian-Far, A.; Jahankhani, H. (Eds.) Digital Twin Technologies and Smart Cities; Springer: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18732-3.
- Fedex (2021). FedEx office teams up with accenture and river logic to optimize its print production and delivery network, https://newsroom.fedex.com/newsroom/global/fedex-office-accenture-river-logic-optimize-print-production-and-delivery-network
- Fortino, G., & Savaglio, C. (2023). Integration of digital twins & internet of things. In The Digital Twin (pp. 205-225). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
- Grieves, M., & Vickers, J. (2017). Digital twin: Mitigating unpredictable, undesirable emergent behavior in complex systems. Transdisciplinary perspectives on complex systems: New findings and approaches, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38756-7_4.
- Hiverlab (2024). DB Schenker, Warehouse enhancements through Digital Twins https://hiverlab.com/db-schenker-digital-twin-case-study/ (Erişim: 28.12.2024)
- Hofmann, W., & Branding, F. (2019). Implementation of an IoT-and cloud-based digital twin for real-time decision support in port operations. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 52(13), 2104-2109.
- Jacoby, M., & Usländer, T. (2020). Digital twin and internet of things—Current standards landscape. Applied Sciences, 10(18), 6519. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10186519.
- Javaid, M., & Haleem, A. (2025). Role of digital twin and blockchain in logistics and supply chain management. In Digital Twin and Blockchain for Sensor Networks in Smart Cities (pp. 243-264). Elsevier.
- Le, T. V., & Fan, R. (2024). Digital twins for logistics and supply chain systems: Literature review, conceptual framework, research potential, and practical challenges. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 187, 109768. 85-113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2023.109768.
- Le, T. V., & Fan, R. (2024). Digital twins for logistics and supply chain systems: Literature review, conceptual framework, research potential, and practical challenges. Computers & industrial engineering, 187, 109768.
- Maersk (2021). Dotzer., E., Maersk Tankers uses vessels’ “digital twin” to slash emissions https://maersktankers.com/newsroom/maersk-tankers-uses-vessels-digital-twin-to-slash-emissions (Erişim Tarihi: 31.12.2024)
- Maersk (2023a). Laybourne, G., Transforming decision making in supply chain logistics with digital twins, https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/2023/01/20/transforming-decision-making-in-supply-chain-logistics-with-digital-twins (Erişim Tarihi: 31.12.2024)
- Maersk (2023b). Hofman., H., Four ways digital twins will shake up logistics, https://www.maersk.com/insights/digitalisation/2023/01/31/digital-twin (Erişim Tarihi: 31.12.2024).
- Maersk (2024). Sengupta, K. Unlocking the true potential of digital twins in supply chains, https://www.maersk.com/insights/digitalisation/2024/05/30/digital-twins-supply-chain (Erişim Tarihi: 01.01.2025) Pandey, A., Flam, R., Mohammed, R., & Kalidindi, A. (2023, December). Emulation and digital twin framework for the validation of material handling equipment in warehouse environments. In 2023 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC) (pp. 3250-3261). IEEE.
- Mayer, A., Greif, L., Häußermann, T. M., Otto, S., Kastner, K., El Bobbou, S., ... & Ovtcharova, J. (2025). Digital Twins, Extended Reality, and Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing Reconfiguration: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability, 17(5), 2318.
- Negueroles, S. C., Simón, R. R., Julián, M., Belsa, A., Lacalle, I., Raúl, S., & Palau, C. E. (2024). A Blockchain-based Digital Twin for IoT deployments in logistics and transportation. Future Generation Computer Systems, 158, 73-88.
- PR Newswire. (2019). DHL Trend Report: Implementation of Digital Twins to Significantly Improve Logistics Operations. PR Newswire US.
- Sharma, A., Kosasih, E., Zhang, J., Brintrup, A., & Calinescu, A. (2022). Digital twins: State of the art theory and practice, challenges, and open research questions. Journal of Industrial Information Integration, 30, 100383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2022.100383.
- Vashishth, T. K., Sharma, V., Sharma, K. K., Kumar, B., Chaudhary, S., & Panwar, R. (2025). Digital twins solutions for smart logistics and transportation. In Digital Twins for Smart Cities and Villages (pp. 353-376). Elsevier.
- Wu, D., Zheng, A., Yu, W., Cao, H., Ling, Q., Liu, J., & Zhou, D. (2025). Digital Twin Technology in Transportation Infrastructure: A Comprehensive Survey of Current Applications, Challenges, and Future Directions. Applied Sciences, 15(4), 1911. Zatuliveter, Y., & Fishchenko, E. (2024). Principles of Scaling Cloud Computing of Digital Twins Using Accelerator Computers with Mass Multi-Core Parallelism. In 2024 17th International Conference on Management of Large-Scale System Development (MLSD) (pp. 1-5). IEEE. Zhang, Y. (2024). Artificial Intelligence for Digital Twin. In: Digital Twin. Simula SpringerBriefs on Computing, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51819-5_3
Details
| Primary Language | Turkish |
|---|---|
| Subjects | International Corporation |
| Journal Section | Articles |
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | June 30, 2025 |
| Submission Date | May 6, 2025 |
| Acceptance Date | June 30, 2025 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2025 Volume: 9 Issue: 1 |
Econder International Academic Journal is an international, peer-reviewed multidisciplinary journal dedicated to publishing scholarly articles on all aspects of Economy and Business. Available online and published two times a year, the journal aims to become one of the leading platforms in the world for new findings and discussions of all fields of Economy and Business.
