Collaboration Mechanism for Shared Returnable Transport Items in Closed Loop Supply Chains

International audienceThis paper addresses a relevant practical approach of collaboration in supply chains including reverse flows of materials. The objective is to simulate a two-stage closed loop supply chains in which two producers use reusable pallets to distribute their finished products to the same retailers. The producers supply raw materials and new pallets they need from suppliers. For each producer, the flows of raw material, loaded/empty pallets and finished products are triggered by information flows. Two simulation models are considered. In the first model, supply chains are non-collaborative. Each producer manages his own pool of pallets. After receiving replenishment orders, trucks deliver loaded pallets and simultaneously pick-up empty ones from retailers to be returned to the producer. In the second model, the two producers share their pool of empty pallets. The results show that collaboration can lead to economies of scale and costs reduction. They also highlight the need for a third part y to manage the entire system to promise mutual benefits for the concerned parties

Cross-Supply Chain Collaboration Platform for Pallet Management

Standardized pallets are an important factor in today's logistics sector to enable efficient processes in transport, storage and handling. By using an open exchange pool for pallets, additional opportunities arise for horizontal and vertical collaboration of various actors from different supply chains. The dissertation "Cross-Supply Chain Collaboration Platform for Pallet Management" investigates the potential of a digital platform for such cross-actor collaboration in pallet management. The designed platform has special mechanisms for balancing pallet debts that arise in the network and for joint planning of empty pallet flows. Therefore, the impact of the designed platforms on logistic processes, especially transports, is explored using simulation modeling. Furthermore, blockchain technology is investigated, which could be used for the implementation of the platform concept and could generate trust in a network of unknown actors. In this context, an empirical online-experiment is used to analyze in a differentiated way which specific features of the blockchain technology generate trust in technology and how these features interact with each other