CO2 emissions mitigation potential of buyer consolidation and rail-based intermodal transport in the China-Europe container supply chains

Freight transport is an increasingly important contributor to global warming. With the projected development of international trade, finding the most energy efficient ways of service intercontinental trades is a key challenge. China-Europe containerized trades are among the most important in this setting. The typical structure of the supply chains associated with this trade is that containers are stuffed in China and then cargos are subsequently cross-docked at major European logistics hubs or distribution centers in the destination countries for further road transport to the final retailing points. This solution may not be optimal from an environmental perspective. To pursue an increasingly sustainable supply chain solution, early movers in the market have adopted an alternative solution that is characterized by upstream buyer consolidation and downstream rail-based intermodal transport. This paper develops a set of mathematical models for analyzing the environmental saving potential of such alternative solutions, encompassing relevant energy use and energy mix data of all the legs and nodes in the supply chains. The empirical analysis is based on a case obtained from a Swedish retailer with a chain of retailing points in Scandinavia and Poland. From an activity-based approach, our findings suggest that upstream buyer consolidation may facilitate the integration of rail and road transport in the destination country, increase container utilization, replace 20-foot containers by 40-foot containers and eliminate the extra de-/re-consolidation activity in the traditional solution, thereby reducing CO2 emissions of the supply chain. This, more efficient supply chain solution, may facilitate a modal shift in the downstream part of the supply chains, which may be attractive to logistics providers, retailers and customers in search of ways of curbing CO2-emissions. The models and analytical framework developed may also be used by practitioners and researchers for analyzing other alternative supply chain designs. Keywords: CO2 emissions, international container supply chains, buyer consolidation, rail-based intermodal transportpublishedVersio

Bundling Strategies in Global Supply Chains

The development of logistics has offered a wide range of new business opportunities for transport operators. Shipping lines have been taking advantage of these opportunities and have expanded their business scope beyond the movement of cargo, to include, for example, coordination among transport modes, route rationalisation and even value added logistics services. Carriers offer today transportation as part of integrated global supply chain solutions in an attempt to provide a better service to their customers as well as improve their bottom lines. This appears to be a winning strategy since an increasing number of industry players are investing in logistics operations and infrastructure. The offering of products and services jointly as a package or bundle is a common marketing strategy in a variety of industries and also appears to be a successful strategy for enhancing shipping lines’ competitiveness and profitability. Only limited research is available though to better understand under what conditions such bundled sales are possible; what attitude shippers show towards this industry trend; how bundling strategies could be developed optimally; and how they could be priced. This thesis is a contribution to research in this area and provides an analysis of the viability and the benefits of bundling strategies in the container industry, and specifically with reference to the joint provision of ocean transportation and other logistics services

INTERNATIONAL FREIGHT TRANSPORT MULTIMODAL DEVELOPMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF BANGLADESH

An efficient transport system is essential for an efficient supply chain to facilitate international trade. To utilise all cheaper resources, such as labour in Bangladesh, companies receive supplies from one coxintry (e.g. in Hong Kong), produce the products in another country, and sell them in other countries (e.g. European countries). Thus the production and consumption has turned into a global activity with transport filling the gaps among them. To perform the transport function a carrier may require the use of more than one mode, the so-called multimodal transport. Multimodal transport, an integrated systems approach, can be defined as the most cost- and time-effective way of moving goods from shipper to consignee by at least two different modes of transport under a single contract. The system has been operating for more than three decades in developed countries, but in developing countries the transport system is still operating in a conventional fragmented way where modal integration has not been achieved. In particular the inland part of the international transport haul has appeared as a barrier to establishing an integrated multimodal transport system. In general, the transport systems in developing countries have failed to contribute to effective international supply chain. Little research has been conducted in this field in developing countries, including Bangladesh. The present research attempts to fill this gap through a triangulation technique; an in-depth literature review of international freight transport of developing countries particularly Bangladesh and developed countries; two rounds of Delphi study among a Bangladeshi panel; and a quantitative study based on a survey. The research hypothesises that Uhe extent to which a fragmented freight transport system can be transformed into an integrated multimodal transport system depends on the present state of the country'. The validity of the hypothesis was established through triangulation. The research also found that there has been a significant freight transport multimodal development in Bangladesh but it has not been perceived by the stakeholders

Towards sustainable logistics and supply chain management

The 27th annual NOFOMA Conference in Molde, Norway, 3-5 June 2015, was hosted by Molde University College in Cooperation With NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The Post Conference Proceedings consists of papers from the conference proceedings for which the author(s) have granted the copyright to NOFOMA 2015 as a part of the Nordic Logistics Research Network

Supplier collaboration for sustainability: a study of UK food supply chains

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of Philosophy.Achieving sustainability in the supply chain is not a choice but an inevitable necessity for the organisation to survive and thrive in the long run. Supplier collaboration to achieve sustainability is widely recognised but poorly studied phenomena. While there is a handful of studies that focused on collaboration for sustainability in food supply chains, only a few considered sustainable (i.e. environmental, cost and social) or Triple Bottom Line (TBL) performance, and in the context of UK food industry, there is hardly any study. Building on previous studies, this thesis addressed these concerns conceptually and empirically by: a) examining supplier collaboration for sustainable performance; b) assessing supplier collaboration for environment friendly and socially responsible practices; c) measuring environment friendly and socially responsible practices for sustainable performance; and d) validating environment friendly and socially responsible practices as the mediators for supplier collaboration and sustainable performance. To achieve these objectives, first, a structured literature review was performed and identified 61 studies that documented supplier collaboration for sustainability, and a comprehensive review was also conducted to expand the research domain. Second, underpinned by Relational View (RV) theory, a set of 17 testable hypotheses (including sub-hypotheses) were developed, and a survey method was used to collect 203 useable data from UK based food businesses who maintain collaborative relationships with their suppliers. Finally, for data analysis, Partial Least Squared- Structural Equations Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was used with SmartPLS3 software. The empirical findings validated that: a) supplier collaboration improves environmental, cost and social performance; b) supplier collaboration contributes to improved environment friendly and socially responsible practices; c) environment friendly practices enhance environmentally, cost and social performance; d) socially responsible practices have an impact on environmental and social performance, however socially responsible practices do not have an impact on cost performance; e) environment friendly and socially responsible practices mediate the relationship between supplier collaboration and sustainable performance. The results suggest that supplier collaboration enhances environment-friendly and socially responsible practices which will lead to enhanced environmental, cost and social performance. The contributions of this research to supply chain management literature are: a) to achieve sustainable performance in the food supply chain, collaboration with the suppliers is essential; b) collaborating with the suppliers, firms can improve their environment friendly and socially responsible practices; c) socially responsible practices in the supply chain enhance environmental and social performance but do not improve cost performance; c) this study extends the Relational View theory (RV) from the relation-specific assets for sustainable performance to the relation-specific assets for environmentally friendly and socially responsible practices which lead to sustainable performance. This study found that inter-organisational relationship facilitates environment-friendly and socially responsible practices which will lead to improved sustainable performance. For practitioners, this study offers the sustainability framework that suggests for greater collaboration with the suppliers to improve environment-friendly and socially responsible practices which should lead to a sustainable performance in the food industry. For the policymakers, this study offers a unique proposition to encourage a collaborative environment in the supply chain to achieve sustainable performance in the food industry

Service led strategies : the case of port centric logistics in UK ports

In recent decades organisations have found ways to increase revenue, respond to challenging business environments, sustain relationships with increasingly sophisticated customers, and overcome saturation barriers in core markets, by the implementation of Service-led-strategies (SLS). SLS are strategies that enhance the core offering of organisations with value-added services (VAS). This research builds on previous studies in supply chain management, maritime logistics and operations management literatures to examine the impact of Services-Led-Strategies (SLS) on the competitiveness of UK ports and intermediaries involved with port-centric logistics (PCL). The main purpose of the study is to contribute to the ongoing research on service-led growth of organisations. Grounded in theoretical assumptions from the extended resource-based theory (ERBT), this research aims to explain the implementation of SLS, and their anticipated impact on UK ports and intermediaries, and to empirically and theoretically underpin the concept of PCL using UK ports and intermediaries as a context. Theoretically, this thesis demonstrates how the co-creation of value and resources among actors in business networks enhance the competitiveness of supply networks. Methodologically, the research adopts a critical realism paradigm and an abductive research approach using multiple case studies developed through the method of casing and collects data through interviews, observations and documents. The case studies contrast theoretical attributes with practice, and develop new context related propositions. Therefore, this research suggests that flexible qualitative data collection and analysis techniques are appropriate for a holistic, and comprehensive understanding of complex operations and supply chain management phenomena. The primary contributions of this thesis are an empirically derived and contextualised typology of SLS in a PCL context, which to the best of the author’s knowledge has not been provided in the PCL literature so far, and a quadruple framework that investigates the anticipated impact of those SLS on firms. The proposed typology provides managers with a comprehensive understanding of the type of SLS they can implement, the resources and services required and the mechanisms to develop them within the PCL market. Additionally, the research study provides managers with a comprehensive framework to understand the anticipated impact of the implemented SLS strategy

Towards sustainable logistics and supply chain management

The 27th annual NOFOMA Conference in Molde, Norway, 3-5 June 2015, was hosted by Molde University College in Cooperation With NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The Post Conference Proceedings consists of papers from the conference proceedings for which the author(s) have granted the copyright to NOFOMA 2015 as a part of the Nordic Logistics Research Network

Exploratory research into supply chain voids within Welsh priority business sectors

The paper reports the findings resulting from the initial stages of an exploratory investigation into Supply Chain Voids (SCV) in Wales. The research forms the foundations of a PhD thesis which is framed within the sectors designated as important by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) and indicates local supplier capability voids within their supply chains. This paper covers the stages of initial data gathering, analysis and results identified between June 2006 and April 2007, whilst addressing the first of four research questions. Finally, the approach to address future research is identified in order to explain how the PhD is to progress

Staying ahead of the global pack : [creating sustainable competitive advantage in the marketing of South African table grapes to the United Kingdom in the deregulated era]

Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-237)