Analytical methods and simulation models to assess innovative operational measures and technologies for rail port terminals: the case of Valencia Principe Felipe terminal

The topic of freight transport by rail is a complex theme and, in recent years, a main issue of European policy. The legislation evolution and the White Paper 2011 have demonstrated the European intention to re-launch this sector. The challenge is to promote the intermodal transport system to the detriment of road freight transport. In this context intermodal freight terminals, play a primary role for the supply chain, they are the connection point between the various transport nodes and the nodal points where the freight are handled, stored and transferred between different modes to final customer. To achieve the purpose, it is strengthen the improvement of existing intermodal freight terminals and the development of innovative intermodal freight terminals towards higher performance (ERRAC, 2012). Many terminal performances improvements have been proposed and sometime experimented. They are normally basing on combinations of operational measures and innovative technologies (e.g. automatic horizontal and parallel storage and handling, automated gate and sensors for tracking systems data exchange) tested in various terminals, with often-contradictory results. The research work described in this paper (developed within the Capacity4Rail EU project) focusses on the assessment of effects that these innovations can have in the intermodal freight terminals combined in various alternative consistent effective scenarios. The methodological framework setup to assess these innovations is basing on a combination of analytical methods based on sequential algorithms and discrete events simulation models. The output of this assessment method are key performance indicators (KPIs) selected according to terminals typologies and related to different aspects (e.g. management, operation and organization). The present paper illustrates the application of the methodological framework, tuned on the operation of various intermodal terminals, for the validation on today operation and the assessment of possible future scenarios to the case study of the Principe Felipe sea-rail terminal in Valencia

Response of Fresh Food Suppliers to Sustainable Supply Chain Management of Large European Retailers

This article analyses new supply chain management (SCM) strategies of the largest retail distribution chains in Europe within the context of differing sustainability concepts and approaches. An analysis is carried out of the strategic plans of such retailers, as well as recent developments in the sector. We begin by identifying the priority actions of retailers and then evaluating, by means of a survey, how small horticultural marketing firms (mainly cooperatives) in southeast Spain respond to the needs of these retailers. Subsequently, an analysis is carried out on these small marketing firm exporters to identify the relative weight which they assign to the variables assessed, while also considering the existing relationships between said weighted variables and business profits. Our results show that retailers tend to establish more simplified supply chains (that is, shorter and more vertical), essentially demonstrating their interpretation of a sustainable supply chain. In contrast, horticultural marketing firms have concentrated more on tactical and operational issues, thereby neglecting environmental, social and logistics management. Thus, their success rate in meeting the sustainability demands of their customers can be considered medium-low, requiring a more proactive attitude. Improved and collaborative relations, and the integration of sustainability concepts between suppliers (marketing firms) and their clients could contribute to successfully meeting sustainability demands. From the point of view of the consumer, close supplier–retail relationships have solved food safety issues, but the implementation of sustainability in other supply chain activities and processes is a pending issue. We propose strategic approximation and collaboration to bridge the gap between the varying sustainability demands in the supplier–retail relationship within perishable supply chains. Although this article specifically addresses fresh vegetable supply chains, the results may be extrapolated to other agri-food chains with a similar structure

Optimising economic, environmental, and social objectives: a goal-programming approach in the food sector

The business-decision environment is increasingly complicated by the emergence of competing economic, environmental, and social goals, a notion typified by the current pressures of global economic instability and climate-change targets. Trade-offs are often unclear and contributions by different actors and stakeholders in the supply chain may be unequal but, due to the interdependencies between businesses and stakeholders in relation to total environmental or social impact, a whole chain, simultaneous, and strategic approach is required. After a review of relevant literature and the identification of knowledge gaps, the author introduces and illustrates the use of goal programming as a technique that could facilitate this approach and uses real case evidence for alternative food supply chain strategies, at local, regional, and national levels. It is shown that the method can simplify a complex simultaneous decision situation into a useful and constructive decision and planning framework. Results show how a priori beliefs may be challenged and how operational and resource efficiency could be improved through the use of such a model, which enables a broad stakeholder appreciation and the opportunity to explore and test new environmental or social challenges

Livestock farming with care : summaries of essays

Wageningen UR is the country’s major research organisation in the field of livestock farming, providing the knowledge base for innovative livestock farming in our country and beyond and, as such, keen to play a role in the above mentioned debate. To this end an interdisciplinary task force was formed embodying a range of expertise, from livestock technology to system analysis and from economics to public administration. As one of the task force activities, Wageningen UR colleagues were invited to write an essay with their vision on specific aspects of this debate, based on their views and expertise. The result was a series of 30 essays, providing a wide overview of relevant issues with possible directions for solutions

East Midlands Transport Equipment Sector Strategy

Transport equipment has been identified as a key sector in the East Midlands economy. This strategy sets out a vision for the development of the sector and how it can contribute to the attainment of regional economic development objectives

Geo-Spotting: Mining Online Location-based Services for Optimal Retail Store Placement

The problem of identifying the optimal location for a new retail store has been the focus of past research, especially in the field of land economy, due to its importance in the success of a business. Traditional approaches to the problem have factored in demographics, revenue and aggregated human flow statistics from nearby or remote areas. However, the acquisition of relevant data is usually expensive. With the growth of location-based social networks, fine grained data describing user mobility and popularity of places has recently become attainable. In this paper we study the predictive power of various machine learning features on the popularity of retail stores in the city through the use of a dataset collected from Foursquare in New York. The features we mine are based on two general signals: geographic, where features are formulated according to the types and density of nearby places, and user mobility, which includes transitions between venues or the incoming flow of mobile users from distant areas. Our evaluation suggests that the best performing features are common across the three different commercial chains considered in the analysis, although variations may exist too, as explained by heterogeneities in the way retail facilities attract users. We also show that performance improves significantly when combining multiple features in supervised learning algorithms, suggesting that the retail success of a business may depend on multiple factors.Comment: Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining, Chicago, 2013, Pages 793-80

From Supply Chains to Total Product Systems

The evolution of supply chain management and practice has had an integral and expanding role in contemporary global economic and socio-political change over the past 25 years or so. Thi srole is moving closer to centre stage with the emergence of business models equating to 'total product systems'. The impacts of advanced supply chain practice include driving fundamental changes in approach to product design, the concept of 'product', production methods, distribution, marketing, aftermarket support and end-of-life (EOL) reprocessing. Viewed in their full context, methods in supply chain management (SCM) have major influences on societal functioning and on economic development at global, national and local levels. Even the supply chains for simple products can involve several different industries and link many companies, large and small. Those for complex products may span several technological domains and economic sectors, linking hundreds or sometimes thousands of companies