Towards an Integrated Inventory Management Process

The most serious inventory management problems are related to poor inventory management – stock shortages or surpluses. Too much inventory reduces competitiveness, increases goods depreciation and ultimately natural losses. A very important aspect is the loss of sales due to a shortage of goods, although this is much less felt and therefore much less analyzed. The aim of the study is to identify the main problems of inventory management in distribution companies and provide possible solutions to these problems. The paper analyzes problematic aspects of inventory management processes, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the major applicable inventory management models used. A qualitative study (experts survey) was also conducted and an integrated inventory management model called “Min-Max” was developed to address problem questions of inventory management. The essence of this model is to integrate and present principles and methodologies for managing inventories to maintain optimal levels of goods in distribution companies

Research on model application to restructuring the railway transport sector in Lithuania

There is no economic grounding and estimation of costs incurred to the State by the establishment and operation of the railway infrastructure management enterprise. In this regard, the article deals with the evaluation of reforming the railway transport sector in other countries and analyses the comparison of restructuring models according to the experience of the EU member states as well as evaluates the selection of models proposed by foreign theoreticians and from an economic point of view justifies the most relevant model of reforming Lithuanian railway transport sector. First published online: 27 Oct 201

Opportunities for Multimodal Transport Development to Promote a Sustainable Environment

The rapidly growing global production and trade increase the demand for transport and logistics, leading to the establishment of increasingly more new companies providing these services. This also results in a much larger number of vehicles, which is not always a positive thing. Excessive vehicle traffic leads to an increase in environmental pollution, noise and traffic accidents, which have a highly negative impact on society and, more specifically, on human health. The negative impact on the environment has been increasing, and therefore representatives of national politics, the transport and logistics sectors should be alarmed and take action to reduce the environmental pollution. The development of the transport system should be carefully planned and geared towards achieving green and sustainable transport. In order to create a sustainable freight transport network, certain alternatives that could help to stop or at least reduce the process of environmental pollution should be pursued. One of such alternatives is the use of multimodal transport, which involves several different modes of transport for transporting one freight. This both distributes and reduces the burden on the currently dominant road transport mode, which contributes significantly to environmental pollution and is not sufficiently sustainable

World Tendences of civil aviation development and the enlargement of the Lithuanian civil aviation

The article deals with global trends in civil aviation, such as: liberalisation of aviation market, globalisation of airlines, privatisation of airlines and invasion of low cost airlines into the market. Also the influence of these trends on the Lithuanian civil aviation activities has been defined. The Lithuanian civil aviation activities have been analysed: activities of international airports, passenger and cargo carriers, passenger routes and passenger flows, transportation market and airplane fleet. The problems of the Lithuanian civil aviation activities have been identified and suggestions for the development of the Lithuanian civil aviation activities have been proposed. First Published Online: 27 Oct 201

Research on advanced technologies and their efficiency in the process of interactions between different transport modes in the terminal

The infrastructure of transport means has to be modernized and organized in such a way that operators could employ effective transportation technologies and processes and that the sustainable development of different transport modes and their proper interoperability with the transport systems of the neighbouring states are achieved. The long‐term development strategy of the Lithuanian transport system notes that the solution to the problems of transport technology is based on improvements in technological supply and the rational use of the informational modeling methodology of the whole transportation process. The interaction between different transport modes in the terminal is a complex and multiplex task. To reach a successful solution for this task, a thorough evaluation and analysis of numerous factors is required and a preliminary research of respective elements is necessary. The application of advanced technologies is essential in the terminal where several road transport modes are involved in the process of interaction. Therefore, an information transmission centre (ITC) is necessary. First published online: 27 Oct 201

Improvement of road safety using passive and active intelligent vehicle safety systems

Following the measures foreseen in the Transport White Paper 2001, situation of road safety has improved. Road fatalities have declined by more than 17 % since 2001 in the EU. However, with around 41 600 deaths and more than 1.7 million injured in 2005, road remains the least safe mode of transport and objectives to halve the number of fatalities on road by 2010 is most likely not feasible to achieve. Therefore a need for the intelligent vehicle safety systems, that enable to raise the level of road safety, is much higher than ever before. The Intelligent Vehicle Safety Systems ensure a superior safety on road would it be vehicle‐based or infrastructure‐related systems. These can be divided into passive and active safety applications where the former help people stay alive and uninjured in a crash, while the latter help drivers to avoid accidents. Some of the most promising (e‐call) and the most used (ABS, ESP) systems are analised more specifically in the paper. Possible solutions to deploying intelligent transport systems in Lithuania are also introduced. First Published Online: 27 Oct 201

Analysis of the accidents and incidents occurring during the transportation of dangerous goods by railway transport

The article examines the accidents and incidents taking place while transporting dangerous goods by railway transport. The paper presents and considers research results indicating the way the respondents estimate the main factors related to risk in rail transport. Also, the correlation of the annual losses encountered by enterprises due to accidents and the losses caused by other factors are analysed. The work suggests recommendation measures for reducing accidents in railway transport while shipping dangerous cargoes

The Implementation of Green Logistics in Road Transportation

The article presents an analysis of academic literature in an attempt to identify the importance of the implementation of green logistics in road transportation. Areas of concern as well as solution and implementation opportunities are presented. A research of transportation companies was conducted in an attempt to understand the real situation regarding the implementation of green logistics measures. The research results are presented in the article. Solutions are provided in the form of a conceptual model for the implementation of green logistics measures in transportation organisations. Nowadays the interest in ecology, minimization of fossil fuel usage, and mitigation of harmful road transportation consequences is rapidly increasing. Eco-friendly vehicles, effective transportation system, application of advanced technologies and innovations should become the main factors in promoting the implementation of green logistics in the transportation sector to mitigate negative effects on the environment. In order to maintain their competitive advantage and customer satisfaction, transportation organisations should begin implementing the concept of green logistics in their businesses. The significance of the concept of green logistics can be observed on global, regional, and national levels. Business is still seen as the leader, responsible for initiation and implementation of ecological logistics principles. The implementation of green logistics is critically important; however, lack of funding and collaboration between the public and the private sectors prevent companies from adopting green logistics measures. Economic driving classes, employee education, electric and hybrid cargo-handling vehicles are some of the possible green logistics measures

Research of competitive environment of Klaipėda Seaport comparing to other seaports in the eastern Baltic Sea region

Constructive and systematic management of a seaport may determine its successful competitive ability in the international market. The analysis of competitive ability of Klaipėda Seaport highlighted its weakest points, influencing the overall competitiveness of the port. The encouragement of port competitive ability is often stressed, however, there is a lack of methodologically based competitive models that include all key factors determining port competitive ability. The current paper gives stages of evaluation both the significance of indices and the importance of criteria in the international market allowed us to determine factors that have an impact on port competitive ability mostly. The method, allowing to predict cargo flows, was used in the description of scenarios for the encouragement of port competitiveness. In order to ensure these cargo flows the port development is also concerned, as an integrated task, which would allow the evaluation of possible changes of cargo flows, port investments and influence of other ports on cargo flows, etc

Algorithm for the assessment of heavyweight and oversize cargo transportation routes

The improvement of transportation systems and technologic equipment leads to changing technical capabilities of this equipment. With the development of technologies, industrial development is also inevitable, resulting in correspondingly increasing need of transportation of HeavyWeight and OverSize (HW/OS) cargo. The application of a systematic approach in HW/OS cargo transportation processes allows reducing costs of delivery of such a cargo several times, which leads to a dramatic change of economic development and investment attraction conditions. Thus creating a system of criteria for the selection and assessment of HW/OS routes, which would allow selecting the most appropriate route of transportation in terms of cost and time, is expedient for this reason. The algorithm for the assessment of HW/OS cargo transportation routes will be drawn up in this article. This algorithm enables an objective evaluation of HW/OS transportation processes comparing different modes of transport, route segments, cargo transportation and cargo handling technology, and it can be practically applied to any territory