Logistics, Volume 3, Issue 1 (March 2019) – 10 articles

Integrating triple bottom line (TBL) goals into supply chains (SCs) is a challenging task which necessitates the careful coordination of numerous stakeholders’ individual interests. Recent technological advancements can impact TBL sustainability by changing the design, structure, and management of modern SCs. Blockchain technology enables immutable data records and facilitates a shared data view along the supply chain. The Physical Internet (PI) is an overarching framework that can be applied to create a layered and comprehensive view of the SC. In this conceptual paper, I define and combine these technologies and derive several high-level research areas and research questions (RQ) to investigate adoption and management as well as structural SC issues. I suggest a theory-based research agenda for the years to come that exploits the strengths of rigorous academic research, while remaining relevant for industry. Furthermore, I suggest various well-established theories to tackle the respective research questions and provide specific directions for future research. Full article

Dairy farming is a subsidiary profession of agriculture in India where dairy cooperatives are an important part of rural development. The current study explores the critical factors in the dairy supply chain, and provides an initial decision framework for its implications. The necessary data were collected from dairy producer members including dairy farmers, executives, and key informants of processing units, to summarize the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) of the milk processing system in India. This includes identifying the objectives of the dairy industry, along with the internal and external critical factors (CFs). SWOT exploration does not offer any investigative basis for evaluating the priorities of CFs, therefore the analytic hierarchy process is applied to define the priorities of identified CFs. The CFs have also been ordered according to relative importance. The findings of this study depict that the SWOT based methodology offers vital sensitivity in assessing the supply chain strategies for the dairy industry. Full article

New generations of high-technology products are frequently launched before the previous model is sold out. Customers have an incentive to end the use of their old product and purchase a new one with the latest technological innovations. The unsold old models become less attractive, while the supply of remanufactured products from end-of-use products is uncertain in time, quantity, and quality. Other than adjusting the price, upgrading the returning unsold new products may be a source of remedy. This study provides profit maximization models associated with customer choice demand functions based on manufacturer, retailer, and joint supply chain scenarios. Two acquisition strategies are compared: acquire end-of-use products only and collect both end-of-use products and unsold old-style new products. The results reveal that returning the optimal quantity of overstocked new products brings about a greater benefit in all scenarios. Compared to the remanufacturer, the retailer is the optimal undertaker for collecting used products. In addition to this, slow technological development of the new-generation model causes a decrease in profit for the manufacturer. The optimal quantity of new products to be bought back decreases, because both the manufacturer and the retailer prefer to promote unsold outmoded products rather than upgrade the used products. Full article

This paper aims to analyze the potential future of the 4PL concept based on expert opinions with special regard to the influence of digitalization coming with a disruptive trans-formation of supply chains. Service arrangements, provider capabilities and benefits resulting from a 4PL partnership are compared in current and future configurations. The research follows an explorative mixed methods approach with semi-structured interviews followed by an expert panel. This builds a basis for an online survey questionnaire to inquire on important future aspects for the 4PL concept by a sample of respondents from multinational companies. Our results show a clear trend away from simply organizing transportation and logistics activities towards the provision of an IT platform as well as further value-added service activities such as planning, analytics and monitoring. Along with this, IT capabilities appear to be an important differentiator for 4PL providers in the future. Moreover, relationships between 4PL providers and their clients become closer and more strategic, which leads to a customer valuing not only direct cost reductions but rather improvements resulting from optimized operations through superior analysis and planning functions. Full article

Professional truck drivers are prone to both physical and psychological stress. Such stress can lead to burnout. Drawing on Job Demands Resources literature and stress research, we investigate the relationship between job related role stressors and three components of burnout, among professional truck drivers who are based in the Netherlands. They were surveyed with a time-lagged design (interval of two months). In the first wave, the different potential causes of burnout were measured (role conflict, role ambiguity, quality of sleep, and the perceived emotional intelligence of the dispatcher). In the second wave, the three elements of burnout were measured: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and low personal accomplishment. The results of our study indicate that role conflict relates positively to all three components of a burnout. The emotional intelligence of the dispatcher—as perceived by the truck drivers—was negatively related with the three components of a burnout. Finally, the quality of sleep had an impact on depersonalization and emotional exhaustion. Theoretically, several job specific role stressors are confirmed to play a role in truck driver burnout. However, the top three role stressors all appeared to be related to the trucking industry, instead of a particular employer, and they may therefore require national policy measures. Full article

Blockchains are attracting the attention of stakeholders in many industrial domains, including the logistics and supply chain industries. Blockchain technology can effectively contribute in recording every single asset throughout its flow on the supply chain, contribute in tracking orders, receipts, and payments, while track digital assets such as warranties and licenses in a unified and transparent way. The paper provides, through its methodology, a detailed analysis of the blockchain fit in the supply chain industry. It defines the specific elements of blockchain that affect supply chain such as scalability, performance, consensus mechanism, privacy considerations, location proof and cost, and details on the impact that blockchains will have in disrupting the supply chain industry. Discussing the tradeoff between consensus cost, throughput and validation time it proceeds with a suggested high-level architectural approach, and concludes as a result with a discussion on changes needed and challenges faced for an in-vivo deployment of blockchains in the supply chain industry. While the technological features of modern blockchains can effectively facilitate supply chain uses cases, the various challenges that still remain, bring in front of us a wide set of needed changes and further research efforts for achieving a global, production level blockchain for the supply chain industry. Full article

Transport and logistics activities contribute heavily to global sustainability problems, yet the implementation of corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting in the sector lags behind. This paper aims to analyze sustainability reporting in the logistics sector, with focus on environmental, social and economic indicators. An extensive operationalization of sustainability indicators is used to examine and analyze the sustainability reports of 52 organizations in the logistics sector worldwide. Results show that the sector does not agree on the materiality of sustainability indicators. Furthermore, sustainability reporting seems to be incompatible with daily operations, leading to obscurity in reports. This contrast, between the necessary existence of organizations in the logistics sector and their undesirable environmental and social effects, calls for future research into how organizations are coping with this paradox. A viable way forward is needed in order to ensure materiality in the sectors’ efforts toward sustainability reporting. Full article

The degree of collaboration among supply chain partners and the structure of the network are important determinants of the level of satisfaction customers derive from the products or services. However, the effects of these dimensions on customer satisfaction at the downstream section of the supply chain remain under-researched in Nigeria. This study precisely examined the effects of collaboration and supply chain design on customers’ satisfaction at the downstream end of the chain using Ekiti State as study area. The study employed descriptive survey design with the use of structured Likert scale questionnaire administered to 381 retailers of noodles in Ekiti State. The research hypotheses were analysed using simple linear regression as statistical technique with the aid of SPSS version 22.0. At the end of the study, it was observed that both collaboration and supply chain design were significant predictors of customers’ satisfaction of instant noodles in Ekiti State. However, collaboration among supply chain partners emerged as stronger determinant of customers’ satisfaction than supply chain design. The study concludes that these two practices of supply chain management are highly important criteria any manufacturing firm especially in the noodles industry must pay close attention to in order to satisfy her consumers. Full article

HeavyEq is an Indonesian company that remanufactures diesel engines for the mining industry. The company experiences delays in the remanufacturing process that lead to a sales backlog. The main purpose of this paper is to identify the root cause of, and propose a solution to, the problem. A fishbone diagram is developed to identify the root cause, and the results show that delays in the remanufacturing process are mainly caused by uncertainty over cores (used engines) in terms of their arrival time, quantity, and quality. Based on a literature review and interviews with experts, an improvement in core acquisition activity, separating job orders for disassembly and recovery, and reassembly processes is proposed to reduce delays in the remanufacturing process. Full article