Inter-firm collaboration in transportation

Dans la littérature académique et professionnelle relative au transport de marchandise, il y a longtemps que les méthodes de planification avancées ont été identifiées comme un moyen de dégager des économies grâce à une efficacité accrue des opérations de transport. Plus récemment, la collaboration interentreprises dans la planification du transport a été étudiée comme une source de gain supplémentaire en efficacité et, par conséquent, une opportunité pour dégager de nouvelles économies pour les collaborateurs. Cependant, la mise en œuvre d'une collaboration interentreprises en transports soulève un certain nombre d’enjeux. Cette thèse aborde trois thèmes centraux de la collaboration interentreprises et démontre les contributions via des études de cas dans l’industrie forestière et du meuble. Premièrement, les moyens technologiques pour soutenir une collaboration en planification du transport sont étudiés. Un système d’aide à la décision supportant la collaboration en transport forestier est présenté. Deuxièmement, le partage entre les collaborateurs du coût commun en transport est étudié. Une méthode de répartition du coût de transport tenant compte de l'impact - l’augmentation du coût de transport - des exigences inégales entre des collaborateurs est proposée. Troisièmement, la création de groupes collaboratifs - des coalitions - dans un ensemble de collaborateurs potentiel est étudiée. Un modèle réseau pour la formation d’une coalition selon les intérêts d’un sous-ensemble de collaborateurs adoptant ou pas un comportement opportuniste est détaillé. De plus, pour soutenir l'étude des thèmes précédents, la thèse comprend deux revues de la littérature. Premièrement, une revue sur les méthodes de planification et les systèmes d’aide à la décision en transport forestier est présenté. Deuxièmement, à travers la proposition d'un cadre pour créer et gérer une collaboration en transport et, plus généralement en logistique, une revue de travaux sur le transport et la logistique collaborative est offerte.In the academic and professional literature on freight transportation, computer-based planning methods have a long time ago been identified as a means to achieve cost reduction through enhanced transportation operations efficiency. More recently, inter-firm collaboration in transportation planning has been investigated as a means to provide further gains in efficiency and, in turn, to achieve additional cost reduction for the collaborators. However, implementation of inter-firm collaboration in transportation raises a number of issues. This thesis addresses three central themes in inter-firm collaboration and exemplifies the contributions in case studies involving collaboration in furniture and forest transportation. First, technological means to enable collaboration in transportation planning are studied. Embedding a computer-based planning method for truck routing, a decision support system enabling collaborative transportation is presented. Second, sharing the common transportation cost among collaborators is studied. A cost allocation method taking into account the impact – an increase of the transportation cost – of uneven requirements among collaborators is proposed. Third, building collaborating groups (i.e. coalitions) among a set of potential collaborators is studied. A network model for coalition formation by a subset of self-interested collaborators adopting or not an opportunistic behaviour is detailed. Moreover, to support the study of the aforementioned themes, the thesis includes two literature reviews. First, a survey on planning methods and decision support systems for vehicle routing problem in forest transportation is presented. Second, through the proposition of a framework for building and managing collaboration in transportation and, more generally in logistics, a survey of works on collaborative transportation and logistics is given

Business Models for Collaborative Planning in Transportation: an Application to Wood Products

In this paper, we propose a framework to describe collaboration in transportation. Then, we discuss the strategic, tactical, operational and real-time transportation planning decisions and raise issues about implementing collaborative decision processes. Also, we provide a literature review of transport decision-support systems that use collaborative planning in the wood fiber flow chain in forestry. Finally, we propose a typology of different business models associated with collaboration in transpor

Business models for collaborative planning in transportation : an application to wood products

In this paper, we propose a framework to describe collaboration in transportation. Then, we discuss the strategic, tactical, operational and real-time transportation planning decisions and raise issues about implementing collaborative decision processes. Also, we provide a literature review of transport decision-support systems that use collaborative planning in the wood fiber flow chain in forestry. Finally, we propose a typology of different business models associated with collaboration in transport

An educational game with dragons’ den experiences for supply chain management training

This article presents an educational game to engage university and industrial stakeholders in collaborative training for supply chain management courses. The game will help students learn complex supply chain management issues. There are two integrated parts: a case ethod through an industrial case and an activity-based game featuring role plays based on international television shows such as Dragons’ Den in Canada or Shark Tank in the United States. We developed a game framework to illustrate how the game can be prepared and played in classrooms. Although the game is primarily developed for classroom teaching, it may be adapted to other training environments. We have provided two examples to demonstrate how the game can be played as a short game in conference environments. Game experiences and feedback are presented with comments from various game participants. By interacting with stakeholders and tackling a real-world business case, students can better understand stakeholders’ business goals, the importance of supply chain collaboration, and the impacts on supply chain decisions

Impact of benefit sharing among companies in the implantation of a collaborative transportation system—An application in the furniture industry

Transportation has become an increasingly important part of th

Impact of benefit sharing among companies in the implantation of a collaborative transportation system : an application in the furniture industry

Transportation has become an increasingly important part of the Canadian furniture industry supply chain. Even when different furniture companies ship to the same regions, the same cities and/or the same furniture retailers, coordination between two or more companies is rare. Recently, interest in collaborative transportation planning to support coordination has intensified as important potential benefits (e.g. cost and delivery time reductions) have been identified. Even though substantial benefits can be realized, the methods for sharing benefits among companies as well as the leadership of the collaboration implementation are key issues in deciding on a logistics scenario for the collaboration. In this paper, the impacts of these two key issues are illustrated using an industrial case study of four Canadian furniture companies shipping to the United-States.

Business models for collaborative planning in transportation : an application to wood products

Transportation is an important part of the wood fibre flow chain in forestry. There are often several forest companies operating in the same region and coordination between two or more companies is however rare. Latelv, the interest in collaborative transportation planning to support co-ordination has risen since important potential savings have been identified. Even though substantial savings can be realized, it seems that companies' willingness to collaborate is tightly linked to a business model driven by one or many leaders. In this paper, we study a specific business model where one company leads the development of the coalition. The impact of different behaviours of the leading company (i.e. altruistic, opportunistic) is illustrated using an industrial case study of eight forest companies.

An empirical study on coalition formation and cost/savings allocation

Interest has been raised by the recent identification of potential savings through collaborative planning in logistics operations. Even though substantial savings can be realized, two key questions exist: (i) how should potential savings be divided among a group of collaborating companies and (ii) among potential collaborating companies, how should collaborating group(s) be formed? These two questions are studied in a specific context: among potential collaborating companies; a subset, denoted the leading companies, performs collaborative planning on behalf of the others and together, they initiate formation of a collaborating group. We use the concept of a business model to detail such context. Based on the literature on network formation where potential savings are modelled by a cooperative game, four business models are explored in four different subsets of leading companies. We propose a network model as a method to determine the stable collaborating group in each computation. A case study including eight forest companies is described and analyzed. Results show that very different solution characteristics can be achieved depending on the business model selected