Horizontal collaboration: opportunities for improved logistics planning

The logistics industry is a critical economic component in most countries and has a significant impact on their citizens' quality of life. In the U.S., 48 million tons of freight valued at more than $46 billion are moved every day and serve 300,000 manufacturing sites, 350,000 warehouses, and 7.5 million businesses. However, the industry is plagued with inefficiencies that can negatively impact corporate profits, the environment, urban congestion, and worker well-being. No single solution will address all of these issues; however, horizontal collaboration appears to offer an opportunity to take a significant step in the right direction. There is an abundance of opportunities for logistics service providers to collaborate, but there is little effective collaboration in practice, and the issues related to this gap remain largely unexplored by academic researchers. This paper offers a review of the existing research in horizontal collaboration, specifically highlighting efforts focussed in the areas of on-demand logistics, freight consolidation, facility sharing, incentives, case studies, and quantitative analyses. A path for pursuing an improved logistics system is offered, and specific research needs in the collaborative logistics field are detailed. We conclude with a discussion of emerging issues that will have immediate impacts on horizontal collaboration efforts.     

货运代理业发展现代综合物流的对策

分析了货运代理业的现状，提出货运代理业应从人才培养、完善服务网络布局、建立物流信息网络、加强供应链管理等方面发展现代综合物流。     

Implementing just-in-time philosophy to reverse logistics systems: a review

Just-in-time (JIT) and reverse logistics are two important philosophies. Coincidentally, both are related to reducing the impact on the environment. However, they are sometimes in conflict with each other. The former focuses on moving the materials smoothly which require a stable demand and supply, but the latter is weak in terms of predicting how many returned products will be processed. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the impact of JIT to reverse logistics systems. After an extensive literature review based on a model developed for this purpose, different functions, namely reverse logistics structure, process model, product life cycle, information system model, and JIT performance, have been identified that have great impact on integrating JIT with reverse logistics. In short, a process model with JIT can have a better control on cost and efficiency of reverse logistics activities, and product life cycle management with JIT helps to design the product that consider the reverse activities in various process models. An information system can support both process model and product life cycle management for JIT reverse logistics. Details are presented in this paper.     

Modelling and optimisation of biomass supply chains: a review

A growing number of researchers are attracted by the domain of bioenergies, due to the problems induced by greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy demand. One possible way of producing biofuels in a renewable way is to use biomass, however the economic viability of a biorefinery system depends critically on the cost of its supplies. As biomass is not very expensive, logistics is responsible of an important fraction of this cost. Models and methods to optimise biomass supply chains are surveyed in this article, after introducing some technical terms and describing the main activities in these chains. This review aims to give a comprehensive overview of the research in this field with a focus on optimisation modelling issues and solution approaches. Recent advances in the current research and possible new directions are sketched.     

Mitigating supply chain disruptions through interconnected logistics services in the Physical Internet

This paper investigates the resilience of inventory models using interconnected logistics services in the Physical Internet (PI). With traditional supply chain network design, companies define and optimise their own logistics networks, resulting in current logistics systems being a set of independent heterogeneous logistics networks. The concept of PI aims to integrate independent logistics networks into a global, open, interconnected system. Prior research has shown that new inventory models enabled by and applied to PI could help reduce inventory levels thanks to its high flexibility. Continuing along these lines, this paper examines how inventory models applying PI deal with disruptions at hubs and plants. To attain this, a single product inventory problem with uncertain demands and stochastic supply disruptions is studied. A simulation-based optimisation model is proposed to determine inventory control decisions. The results suggest that the PI inventory model, with greater agility and flexibility, outperforms the current classic inventory models in terms of resilience. Moreover, the difference in performance increases when the product value, penalty costs and disruption frequency increases. This paper indicates a novel approach to build a resilient supply network.     

Systematic literature review on city logistics: overview,classification and analysis

City logistics is one of the significant branches of supply chain management, dealing with the logistics and transportation activities in urban areas. This research area has recently appropriated an exponential growth of publications. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis along with a systematic literature review to organise the results of surveying more than 370 papers and research works published since 2010. We identify the top contributing research topics. The most common keywords used in the city logistics literature are referred to in order to propose six research categories identifying the main innovative research perspectives.     

Physical Internet,conventional and hybrid logistic systems: a routing optimisation-based comparison using the Eastern Canada road network case study

The Physical Internet (PI) logistics system is an innovative logistics concept that has been gathering a lot of attention lately. This system consists of open, modular and shared containers and transit hubs to move goods globally. The purpose of this paper is to compare the performance of PI with regard to the conventional (CO) logistics system in order to quantify the advantages and disadvantages of PI from a truck and driver routing perspective with an explicit constraint on maximum return time for drivers. The comparison presented in this work is carried out through Monte-Carlo simulation within a sequential three-phase optimisation framework. Based on our analysis, PI reduces driving distance (and time), GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and the social cost of truck driving. On the other hand, it increases the number of container transfers within the PI logistics centres. This insight is a contribution of the paper and reinforces the current literature on PI. The other main contribution of the paper is a validation of the claim that the number of drivers who can go back home at the end of a work day remains consistently high in PI, regardless of the traffic level.     

A multi-agent architecture for reverse logistics in a green supply chain

Green supply chain issues have attracted a lot of attention in recent years with growing awareness of environmental concerns. This has drawn the considerable world-wide attention of academics and practitioners. Therefore, recycling has now become an integral component of the supply chain. Recycling of used products and the related logistics management pose a significant challenge to manufacturing industries. In order to resolve the complexity of the task, this study proposes a multi-agent architecture to handle recycling and reverse logistics issues, which have so far been neglected. It addresses the different aspects of recycling such as waste classification, recycling, logistics and reuse of products. Additionally, it also discusses how the agent communicates and acts autonomously to facilitate the efficient logistics of materials between different units. The proposed agent architecture can assist manufacturing industries in efficiently managing their green supply chain system and complex logistics issues.     

Modelling carbon trading and refrigerated logistics services within a fresh food supply chain under carbon cap-and-trade regulation

Carbon cap-and-trade regulation is widely adopted to reduce carbon emissions. Under this regulation, we propose a carbon trading mechanism considering refrigerated logistics services in a fresh food supply chain. In addition to supplying fresh food, the supplier offers refrigerated logistics services and overstocked carbon emission permits to the retailer. We study the decisions on the price of emission permits traded within the supply chain, the retail price and the price of refrigerated logistics services in different carbon trading options, without carbon trade, inner carbon trade, inner and outer carbon trade. Pricing strategies for fresh food, emission permits and refrigerated logistics services are provided for supply chain members. We also reveal the relationship between carbon trading and refrigerated logistics services, and investigate their joint influence on the supplier–retailer cooperative relationship. In addition, it is shown that with the implementation of a transfer payment mechanism, supply chain members are motivated to participate in the carbon trading mechanism, which has advantages including improved resource utilisation and more competitive supply chains.     

Simulation modelling for food supply chain redesign; integrated decision making on product quality,sustainability and logistics

Food supply chains are confronted with increased consumer demands on food quality and sustainability. When redesigning these chains the analysis of food quality change and environmental load of new scenarios is as important as the analysis of efficiency and responsiveness requirements. Simulation tools are often used for supporting decision-making on supply chain (re)design when logistic uncertainties are in place, building on their inherent modelling flexibility. Mostly, the underlying assumption is that product quality is not influenced by or does not influence chain design. Clearly, this is not true for food supply chains, as quality change is intrinsic to the industry. We propose a new integrated approach towards logistics, sustainability and food quality analysis, and implement the approach by introducing a new simulation environment, ALADIN?. It embeds food quality change models and sustainability indicators in discrete event simulation models. A case example illustrates the benefits of its use relating to speed and quality of integrated decision making, but also to creativity in terms of alternative solutions.     

Methodological approaches to supply chain design1

This paper reviews methodological approaches to the design (or redesign) of the supply chain (SC), including comprehensive approaches (proposals concerning the entire process of designing the SC) and those that deal with four specific aspects of the process (definition of the SC objectives, reverse SC, finance, and generation and use of scenarios) that have a decisive influence on the whole design of the SC. The comprehensive approaches include those based on typologies of products, markets and SCs and those that propose a succession of the stages to follow through the design process. The discussion shows that the use of typologies is not adequate to face SC design and that the methods proposing a succession of stages may suit, provided that they are developed and presented in a manner appropriate to their use for practitioners. The discussion leads also to suggest several research lines.     

Blockchain applications in supply chains,transport and logistics: a systematic review of the literature

This paper presents current academic and industrial frontiers on blockchain application in supply chain, logistics and transport management. We conduct a systematic review of the literature and find four main clusters in the co-citation analysis, namely Technology, Trust, Trade, and Traceability/Transparency. For each cluster, and based on the pool of articles included in it, we apply an inductive method of reasoning and discuss the emerging themes and applications of blockchains for supply chains, logistics and transport. We conclude by discussing the main themes for future research on blockchain technology and its application in industry and services.     

An empirical study of impacts of production mix,product route efficiencies on operations performance and profitability: a reverse logistics approach

This research studies the impact of two reverse logistics business strategies on profitability of the firm through operations management (OM). The study is employed on scrap steel industry. The first strategy is production mix efficiency (PME), which is involved in the process of producing goods. The second strategy is product route efficiency (PRE), which engages in the transportation of goods. Our finding indicates that OM alone does not have a positive impact on profitability. However, the two strategies have a positive effect on profitability, which provides a potential answer to firms trying to improve profitability.     

An evolutionary algorithm for a new multi-objective location-inventory model in a distribution network with transportation modes and third-party logistics providers

This paper proposes a multi-objective optimisation algorithm for solving the new multi-objective location-inventory problem (MOLIP) in a distribution centre (DC) network with the presence of different transportation modes and third-party logistics (3PL) providers. 3PL is an external company that performs all or part of a company’s logistics functions. In order to increase the efficiency and responsiveness in a supply chain, it is assumed that 3PL is responsible to manage inventory in DCs and deliver products to customers according to the provided plan. DCs are determined so as to simultaneously minimise three conflicting objectives; namely, total costs, earliness and tardiness, and deterioration rate. In this paper, a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is proposed to perform high-quality search using two-parallel neighbourhood search procedures for creating initial solutions. The potential of this algorithm is evaluated by its application to the numerical example. Then, the obtained results are analysed and compared with multi-objective simulated annealing (MOSA). It is concluded that this algorithm is capable of generating a set of alternative DCs considering the optimisation of multiple objectives, significantly improving the decision-making process involved in the distribution network design.     

Dynamic product acquisition in closed loop supply chains

We consider a closed-loop supply chain where demand can either be satisfied by manufacturing new products or by buying back used products from customers and upgrading their functionality by remanufacturing. A joint buy-back pricing and manufacturing–remanufacturing decision model at the operations–marketing interface is presented that allows for dynamic parameters, e.g. product life cycles and seasonal aspects. The model allows the identification of beneficial opportunities for buying back and storing used products for immediate and future recovery. We present a new deterministic, dynamic, continuous-time optimisation model, derive necessary and sufficient optimality conditions, and develop a solution algorithm to find the cost-minimising manufacturing and remanufacturing policies as well as buy-back strategies for used products based on Pontryagin's Maximum Principle. It is shown that, in general, an optimal policy will include time intervals where returns are acquired so as to synchronise demand and remanufacturing, where returns are acquired and stored for future remanufacturing, and intervals where demand is satisfied by a mix of manufactured and remanufactured products. Furthermore, we discuss several reactive and proactive acquisition and remanufacturing heuristics and show under which conditions they are optimal. The findings are illustrated by numerical examples.     

Vehicle routing concepts in the closed-loop container network of ARN—a case study

In this paper we discuss a real-life case study to optimize the logistics network for the collection of containers from end-of-life vehicle dismantlers in the Netherlands. Advanced planning concepts, such as dynamic assignment of dismantlers to logistic service providers, are analyzed using a simulation model. Based on this model, we periodically solve a vehicle routing problem to gain insight into the long-term performance of the system. The vehicle routing problem considered is a multi-depot pickup and delivery problem with alternative delivery locations. A special characteristic of the problem is the limited vehicle capacity of two containers. We solve this problem with a heuristic based on route generation and set partitioning.     

Simulation-based optimisation approach for the stochastic two-echelon logistics problem

This work proposes a simulation-based optimisation approach for the two-echelon vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands (2E-VRPSD). In the proposed 2E-VRPSD, freight delivery from the depot to the customers is managed by shipping the freight through intermediate satellites, while each customer has a stochastic demand. The 2E-VRPSD is an extension of the famous capacitated vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands and the two-echelon vehicle routing problem (2E-VRP). A tabu search algorithm is designed to solve the 2E-VRPSD, in which Monte Carlo sampling is adopted to tackle the issue of stochastic demands. Modified two-echelon vehicle routing problem benchmark instances are used in the numerical experiments. The computational results show the advantage of the proposed simulation-based approach.     

Evaluating reverse third-party logistics operations using a semi-fuzzy approach

The responsiveness and efficiency of distributed and multi-echelon supply chains are increasingly reliant upon reduced cycle times within forward and reverse logistics operations. Within the high-tech industry, Reverse Logistics (RL) in the form of end-of-life, stock balancing, defective/warranty, recycle, and re-use product returns, is particularly important owing to the complexity and dependency that exist throughout the extended supply chain in order to maintain brand loyalty and customer satisfaction (source, OEM vendors and end customers alike). RL is fast becoming a strategy to acquire an organisational competitive advantage, making the quest to exploit such a function a premeditated decision. The introduction of Third-Party Logistics (3PL) providers has become a necessity for those supply-chain operations where issues of cost and risk mitigation need to be balanced with agility and responsiveness. This paper develops a conceptual framework of the factors influencing Reverse 3PL based upon Information Systems (IS) and associated Resource Commitment (RC) factors. The framework is then tested using a mixed-method research based approach using a 3PL organisation based in Thailand. The research findings reveal that among the proposed factors, IS- and RC-based operating performance, resource cost-effectiveness and RC (at financial, managerial and technological levels in the firm) were deemed to have a stronger positive relationship and input into reverse 3PL operations for the firm in context. The model is validated using the techniques of System Dynamics and Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping.     

Quality decision of the logistics service supply chain with service quality guarantee

In the logistics service supply chain (LSSC), quality supervision and coordination is an important approach that can ensure the effective operation of LSSC and obtain more customers. This paper aims to study the quality decisions of the functional logistics service provider (FLSP) and the logistics service integrator (LSI) when a service quality defect guarantee is promised by the FLSP. Assuming that customer demand is a function of the quality defect guarantee of the FLSP, the optimal quality decisions of the LSI and FLSP are presented under three typical game modes: Nash game, Stackelberg game, and centralised decision. Numerical analysis is conducted to show how the quality parameters of the customer affect the optimal quality decision-making behaviour of the LSI and FLSP. The research results indicate that, under all three game modes, the optimal quality defect guarantee of the FLSP increases as the customer punishment increases, and decreases as the elasticity of the customer demand for the quality defect guarantee increases. In addition, under all three game modes, the optimal quality supervision effort of the LSI is an increasing function of both customer punishment and elasticity of the customer demand for the quality defect guarantee.