Logistics — Open Access Journal

For years, the freight forwarding industry has been facing high levels of global competition. Accelerating this development, new and digital competitors are entering the market, striving to make freight logistics even faster, cheaper, and more predictable. Digitalization processes change traditional logistics businesses, leading to more efficient, flexible, and de-centrally organized logistics services. Sea freight operations, in particular, have the potential to better fulfill customer-specific requirements in competitive and complex environments by integrating digital technologies. Therefore, it is essential to understand how automating informational processes, such as freight brokering, affect business models in the logistics service industry. The present study qualitatively analyzed the case of FreightHub, a fourth-party logistics (4PL) sea freight agency, and compared its business model with traditional third-party logistics (3PL) business models. Applying a digital business model conceptualization, the present paper presents an extended framework for digital sea freight business models. In this line, the study contributes to theory and practice by refining business model research in the maritime transportation context, and providing managerial implications about the opportunities and threats of a digital transition in this industry. Full article

Nowadays, the denomination of “smart” is associated with several production and management devices and to logistics and distribution, too. Thus, this qualification is used in different application fields. All of them are different and diverse, but the most important common characteristics of these devices or Smart Systems are based on their novel and more efficient way of working. The smart trend is consolidated in the port environment, too. The ports’ need to become more intelligent is modifying their own operations. Therefore, this paper includes an analysis of Spanish Port System, in order to evaluate its ports, considering the new concept called “Smart Port”. Some indicators and measure variables are defined, to allow for quantifying technical items. These items—both quantitative and qualitative ones—which reflect, in the most objective and complete way possible, the adaptation and achievement of characteristics and objectives associated with the Smart Port concept in all ports were studied, in order to obtain an index of Smart Ports that allows us to calculate the ranking of the Spanish Smart Ports. Considering the analysis of the Smart Port concept and its current and future trends, it has been determined that the development of a port must be based on the digitalization, on use of ICT and on automation of port processes. Full article

Arising from the menace of city logistics problems in Lagos State with reference, in particular, to the Apapa and Tin Can Island seaport axis, the federal and state governments, in collaboration with private investors, seek to establish and/or develop some potential seaports to ease the burden of maritime logistics. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are to examine the prospects and challenges of the development of these proposed seaports and to analyze the efficiencies of the two selected seaports in order to determine the need for the required investment in seaport development. Descriptive analysis was used to examine the challenges of the selected seaports, while stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) was used to determine the efficiency of the selected seaports. The responses of the stakeholders and shipping companies to the various challenges were collected through a well-structured questionnaire, and the 2008–2017 cargo throughputs of the selected seaports were used as the secondary data for stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). It was discovered that the challenges associated with the Calabar Seaport were the draught level, cost of shipment, accessibility to industries, and condition of other modes of transport. From the stochastic frontier, the Lagos Apapa seaport is quite efficient, with an efficiency value of 0.9764921, while Calabar is slightly above average, with a mean efficiency value of 0.6086686. By implication, the congestion in the seaports in the Lagos seaport complex with the maximum level of efficiency creates the need for another seaport, which must be sited at a well-vetted location. In the case of the Calabar seaport, the efficiency level shows that the seaport is yet to be fully utilized. Hence, investment decisions regarding whether to build a new seaport or use dredging to upgrade the existing ones must be carefully analyzed, as the establishment of the proposed Ibom deep seaport may further affect the efficiency of the Calabar seaport(s). In conclusion, demand should be the driving force for port establishment: when a port cannot generate enough traffic, it may not yield returns on investment as expected. Full article

Product returns are a source of valuable information that can be used by firms and supply chains to improve products, services, and decision making. However, firms are struggling to maximize the value of this information, and the extant scholarly literature is scattered among various research streams. Using a systematic literature review, the state-of-the-art of product returns informational value research and limitations in the current body of work were examined and future directions for research suggested. Three types of informational value were identified, namely operational information, product related information, and customer-related information, along with four value-creating factors, namely strategic information system (IS) decisions, organizational learning, information sharing, and technological solutions. Implications for practitioners are discussed. Lastly, the limitations are discussed, along with recommendations and directions for future research work. Full article

Studies have shown that leading supply chain companies are associated with significantly higher company financial ratios than competitors. In contrast, little research has focused on the financial performance of the affiliated suppliers and customers of such supply chain leader (SCL) companies. Thus, the central purpose of this paper is to determine, from a financial perspective, whether suppliers and customers benefit or lose by participating in a SCL network (so called “financial spillover effects”). Companies that were ranked in the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 were selected as SCLs. For each selected firm, the five largest suppliers and customers were identified and compared with a control sample from the same industry. In order to elaborate on existing insights into the (financial) outcome of supply chain relationships, we applied an explorative approach with abductive reasoning, while comparing the secondary data for 224 SCL supplier (56 firms) and 168 SCL customer (42 firms) firm-years with 1940 (485 firms) and 1544 (386 firms) control firm-years, respectively. The following insights are made: First, the superior financial performance of SCLs was confirmed. Second, the financial performance of suppliers and customers showed superior liquidity and activity ratios but inferior profitability ratios. Third, suppliers showed much more significant results than customers. Full article

While supply chain analytics shows promise regarding value, benefits, and increase in performance for logistics and supply chain management (LSCM) organizations, those organizations are often either reluctant to invest or unable to achieve the returns they aspire to. This article systematically explores the barriers LSCM organizations experience in employing supply chain analytics that contribute to such reluctance and unachieved returns and measures to overcome these barriers. This article therefore aims to systemize the barriers and measures and allocate measures to barriers in order to provide organizations with directions on how to cope with their individual barriers. By using Grounded Theory through 12 in-depth interviews and Q-Methodology to synthesize the intended results, this article derives core categories for the barriers and measures, and their impacts and relationships are mapped based on empirical evidence from various actors along the supply chain. Resultingly, the article presents the core categories of barriers and measures, including their effect on different phases of the analytics solutions life cycle, the explanation of these effects, and accompanying examples. Finally, to address the intended aim of providing directions to organizations, the article provides recommendations for overcoming the identified barriers in organizations. Full article

The application of different evaluation approaches in logistics requires considering many factors with different significance for making the final decision. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods are often applied in logistics to create different strategies and evaluations. In this paper, research has been carried out in a transport system of an international transport company. An MCDM model has been created for the purpose of human resource evaluation, on which the overall efficiency of the company depends. A total of 23 drivers were evaluated on the basis of five crucial criteria in order to increase employees’ motivation through their periodic remuneration. The Full Consistency Method (FUCOM) was applied to determine the significance of the criteria, while the evaluation of potential solutions was performed using Measurement Alternatives and Ranking according to COmpromise Solution (MARCOS). After the results had been obtained, the created model was validated throughout comparisons with seven other MCDM methods. Full article

The port system is immersed in a process of digital transformation towards the concept of Ports 4.0, under the new regulatory and connectivity requirements that are expected of them. As a result of the changes that the industrial revolution 4.0 is imposing, based on new information technologies and the change of energy model, the electrification of modes of transport from alternative energies and the total digitalization of the processes is occurring. This conversion to digital, intelligent, and green ports requires the implementation of the new technologies offered by the market. The inclusion of these enabling tools has allowed the development of automated terminals under a functional approach. This article aims to offer the responsible entities a new methodology (BOT) that allows them to successfully undertake the automation of terminals, taking into account the reality of the conditions of the environment in which they are developed. By quantifying the factors that facilitate or impede implementation, it will be possible to determine the strategy to be followed and the necessary measures to be adopted in the project; constituting, therefore, a novel management and planning tool. Full article

Accurate travel time prediction is of high value for freight transports, as it allows supply chain participants to increase their logistics quality and efficiency. It requires both sufficient input data, which can be generated, e.g., by mobile sensors, and adequate prediction methods. Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are well suited to solve non-linear and complex relationships in the collected tracking data. Despite that, only a minority of recent publications use ML for travel time prediction in multimodal transports. We apply the ML algorithms extremely randomized trees (ExtraTrees), adaptive boosting (AdaBoost), and support vector regression (SVR) to this problem because of their ability to deal with low data volumes and their low processing times. Using different combinations of features derived from the data, we have built several models for travel time prediction. Tracking data from a real-world multimodal container transport relation from Germany to the USA are used for evaluation of the established models. We show that SVR provides the best prediction accuracy, with a mean absolute error of 17 h for a transport time of up to 30 days. We also show that our model performs better than average-based approaches. Full article

Logging and tracking raw materials, workpieces and engineered products for seamless and quick pulls is a complex task in the construction and shipbuilding industries due to lack of structured storage solutions. Additional uncertainty is introduced if workpieces are stacked and moved by multiple stakeholders without maintaining an active and up-to-date log of such movements. While there are frameworks proposed to improve workpiece pull times using a variety of tracking modes based on deterministic approaches, there is little discussion of cases wherein direct observations are sparse due to occlusions from stacking and interferences. Our work addresses this problem by: logging visible part locations and timestamps, through a network of custom designed observation devices; and building a graph-based model to identify events that highlight part interactions and estimate stack formation to search for parts that are not directly observable. By augmenting the site workers and equipment with our wearable devices, we avoid adding additional cognitive effort for the workers. Native building blocks of the graph-based model were evaluated through simulations. Experiments were also conducted in an active shipyard to validate our proposed system. Full article

Automotive manufacturers are competing to be the first to introduce customer-ready autonomous vehicles. Some manufacturers are claiming to launch their first self-driving cars as early as 2020. Which all sounds very good and futuristic; however, the question arises, are customers even ready to adopt this new technological advancement? Therefore, this pilot study is aimed at finding out the answer to this question in the Austrian market. This study discovers the standpoint of Austrian consumers concerning the acceptance of self-driving cars for daily usage and gives an overview of the current point of view regarding autonomous vehicles (AVs). The data for this study was collected using an online, user-friendly, Likert scale survey. The collected data were processed and analyzed for empirical significance in SPSS using Spearman’s rank correlation and the Mann–Whitney U test supported by descriptive analysis. The results of the study indicate that Austrian consumers are well aware of autonomous vehicles and their technology. However, they have specific concerns about reliability, cybersecurity, and futuristic car-sharing models. Therefore, these concerns about AVs should be addressed by auto manufactures in order to gain consumers’ trust and sell them a new form of mobility. Full article

This article presents the results of theoretical and empirical studies on the search for new logistics development paradigms needed to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century global economy. The author reviews the major factors determining the effectiveness of international processes and operations, including logistics success potentials in supply chains. Furthermore, the article proposes methods for measuring logistics performance, specifically the logit model and the model of fuzzy logic, which could be used to assess whether a firm’s planned investments in logistics infrastructure will end in success or failure. The article also evaluates the impact of logistics on the development of international trade in the practice of Polish firms. The studies cover a period before Poland’s accession to the European Union (EU) (2000 to 2004), and after the accession, from 2005 to 2016, and are supplemented with a forecast for logistics development in Polish firms until 2020. Full article

The literature indicates that a 20% reduction in the weight of empty 40-foot shipping containers would result in $28 billion of fuel savings, along with a 3.6 exajoule reduction in the energy demand over containers’ 15-year lifetime. Decreasing the energy demand and thereby greenhouse gas emissions by utilizing lightweight shipping containers has been an unexplored strategy. In this regard, this study investigates the possibility of further reducing the weight of an empty container without compromising the structural integrity, strength, and function of a traditional steel container. This research finds that up to an 80% reduction in weight is possible by producing shipping containers with composite materials. This research presents the new design of a 40-foot container made of carbon fiber laminates. The tare weight of a traditional 40-foot shipping container is around 3750 kg. On the contrary, in this research, the weight of a composite design of the same container is calculated to be around 822 kg. Additional tests with various loads, such as lifting the container and stacking loads onto the composite container, are performed to explore the strength and buckling issues of the design presented in this study. The analyses reveal that the composite shipping container is a highly promising candidate for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, providing fuel savings and thus reducing the operational costs of transportation. Full article

Travel times for simple trips and cycles are analyzed for a storage/retrieval machine working in a one-dimensional or two-dimensional zone with taxicab geometry. A semi-random trip is defined as one-way travel from a known to a random location or vice versa. A random trip is defined as one-way travel from a random to another random location. The probability density function (PDF) of the travelling time for a semi-random trip in a one-dimensional zone is expressed analytically for all possible locations of its starting point. The PDF of a random trip within the same zone is found as a marginal probability by considering all possible durations for such travel. Then the PDFs for the travel times of single command (SC) and dual command (DC) cycles are obtained by scaling the PDF for the travel time of a semi-random trip (for SC) and as the maximum travel time of two independent semi-random trips (for DC). PDFs for travel times in a two-dimensional service zone with taxicab geometry are calculated by considering the trip as a superposition of two one-dimensional trips. The PDFs for travel times of SC and DC cycles are calculated in the same way. Both the one-dimensional and the two-dimensional service zones are analyzed in the time domain without normalization. The PDFs for all travel times are expressed in an analytical form parameterized by the maximal possible travel time within the zone. The graphs of all PDFs are illustrated by numerical examples. Full article

Economic potential of feedstock generated low-valued forest residue can be enhanced by emerging biomass conversion technologies (BCT), such as torrefaction, briquetting, and gasification. However, for implementing these emerging processes within the woods, several hurdles are to be overcome, among which a balanced supply chain is pivotal. Centralized biomass recovery operation (CBRO) could be an economically viable solution in accessing harvesting sites and allows integration of BCT into forest management. The goal of this study was to examine the logistic effects of integrating a BCT into a CBRO, under different in-wood scenarios based on variations in travel time between the facility locations, amount of raw materials handled, intermediate storage capacity, and duration (number of days) of annual operations. Specific objectives included analyzing the effects of forest residue recoverability (BDMT, bone dry metric ton/ha), total transportation time from the harvest unit to the market, and the annual number of in-woods production sites on the overall efficiency of the BCT operations. Concurrently, this study examined the forest managerial impacts due to such an integration. Location-allocation tool (maximize market share problem type) within the ArcGIS Network Analyst platform was utilized to model the scenarios and generate one-way travel times from the harvest site to final markets. Results from geospatial analysis showed that there were 89–159 and 64–136 suitable locations for the BCT for logistics model (LM) I and II, respectively. Total one-way travel time for all the models ranged between 1.0–1.7 h. Additionally, the annual numbers of BCT sites was inversely proportional to the total one-way travel time (i.e., harvest unit to market). Arranging CBRO and BCT operations to occur at the same in-woods site returned shorter total and average travel times than arranging the two activities at separate in-woods sites. The model developed for this study can be used by forest managers and entrepreneurs to identify sites for placing BCTs in the forest that minimizes transportation times. Full article

In the last couple of decades, there has been an unparalleled growth in number of people who can afford motorized vehicles. This is increasing the number of vehicles on roads at an alarming rate and existing infrastructure and conventional methods of traffic management are becoming inefficient both on highways and in urban areas. It is very important that our highways are up and running 24/7 as they not only provide a passage for human beings to move from one place to another, but also are the most important mode for intercity or international transfer of goods. There is an utter need of adapting the new world order, where daily processes are driven with the help of innovative technologies. It is highly likely that technological advancements like autonomous or connected vehicles, big data and the Internet of things can provide highway operators with a solution that might resolve unforeseeable challenges. This investigative exploratory research identifies and highlights the impact of new technological advancements in the automotive industry on highways and highway operators. The data for this research was collected on a Likert scale type online survey, from different organizations around the world (actively or passively involved in highway operations). The data was further tested for its empirical significance with non-parametric binomial and Wilcoxon signed rank tests, supported by a descriptive analysis. The results of this study are in line with theoretical and conceptual work done by several independent corporations and academic researchers. It is evident form the opinions of seasoned professionals that these technological advancements withhold the potential to resolve all potential challenges and revolutionize highway operations. Full article

The incorporation of sustainable aspects in the supply chain management (SCM) has become an important topic for researchers and professionals; however, it is a field that yet lacks a systemic understanding. The objective of this article is to conduct an analysis on the international literature about the SCM sustainability topic, by employing a systematic review protocol, covering the period from 2011 to 2016. The content analysis technique was performed, following the procedures of categorical thematic analysis proposed by Bardin (1977), which considers the creation of categories a posteriori, based in the direction senses related to the content analyzed. Besides to present the main characteristics of the articles related to distribution of publications per year, most studied sectors, main methods and approaches used main countries and journals of publications, we categorize the results at the systemic approach level of the sustainable development dimensions. We found that some dimensions are prominent when compared with the others: For example: the environmental one, on the other hand, the social one is approached few times in the papers considered in our analysis. These results also indicate that this type of discussion needs to be extended to other sectors that have not yet been explored. The contribution of this paper lies on the synthetization of the state-of-the-art related to sustainable SCM in the period considered, highlighting the environmental, social and economic dimensions, in order to identify a research agenda. By identifying possible research gaps, the results of this research contribute to guide future investigations on sustainable SCM, aiding researchers and practitioners in this field. Full article

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a digital manufacturing technology that enables companies to rethink their supply chain (SC) design. By means of literature synthesis, we build new knowledge about the mechanisms AM induces to improve SC design and performance, as well as the disruptive changes AM can cause. We investigate opportunities to optimize SC design for manufacturing purposes by exploiting the characteristics of AM, e.g., its freedom in terms of shape design and complexity and the absence of a need for object-specific tools. We study the roles of demand, assortment, IT systems, sourcing, manufacturing, knowledge, warehousing, and transportation, and explore the effects and tradeoffs on various SC performance outcomes, including cost, assets, and responsiveness. The contribution of this article is twofold. First, through literature synthesis, we construct six AM SC mechanisms that can be used in SC design to achieve desired SC outcomes for AM production applications in certain (business) contexts. Second, we identify the disruptive ‘game-changing’ effects of AM for SC stakeholders. This knowledge can be used by other researchers to develop further research. Moreover, general and logistics managers can use the results to fully exploit the potential of AM for designing much improved supply chains. Innovators and policy makers can use the results to understand the potential game-changing consequences of AM. Full article