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Sea-rail intermodal transportation around the globe faces complex challenges that affect the satisfaction of shippers’ needs. An efficient cargo flow between the port and its hinterland depends particularly on efficient connectivity between the seaport and rail. Sea-rail intermodal can be a cost-efficient and green alternative to unimodal road transportation. Inefficient sea-rail connectivity in the seaport slows cargo flow and affects port capacity. Various factors could affect the system’s efficiency and create bottlenecks in the system. A case study adopts a discrete event-based simulation approach to assess bottlenecks in the sea-rail connection that affect cargo flow and generate congestion. The data were collected from the Port of Trois- Rivières, the focus of our investigation. Our objective is to identify bottlenecks in the sea-rail intermodal system in the port, identify strategies to mitigate bottlenecks and accelerate cargo flow. To this end, we examined various scenarios, including an increase in the share of trains for cargo transportation and an increase in the number of daily train convoys. The findings underscore that elevating the train share to 40% and introducing two daily train services yield significant enhancements in key performance indicators. Noteworthy advantages encompass a reduction in the average time ships spend in the port, a decrease in the average waiting time for trains to depart from the port, an overall improvement in cargo handling efficiency within the port, and a notable alleviation of bottlenecks within the system.

In this research project, we developed a framework for describing different wood supply chains (WSC) in a generic way and assessing their agility and tailoring capabilities. The studied WSC comprises the planning and execution, at the operational level, of all activities, from selling agreements to delivery of forest products at the mill yard. required by the environment’s uncertainties are compared and discussed. Finally, tailoring capabilities were assessed, based on the location of the decoupling points and their respective order fulfilment cycle time. Two processes were identified, where most of the product differentiation activities along a WSC occur: harvesting with the CTL method and merchandising at a roadside landing using the FT method. The capabilities to tailor product specifications are superior before rather than after one of these processes. Moreover, a typology of assortments according to the level of tailoring is provided and the financial incentive to produce a basket of assortments with a higher level of tailoring is discussed. Finally, when comparing the location of the decoupling point, the agility capabilities and the average order fulfilment cycle time, it was possible to reinforce the results from the literature, which state that supply chain agility is linked to shorter leadtime. The framework is useful to organisations interested in describing their WSC and assessing their agility and tailoring capabilities. By assessing the tailoring and agility capabilities of a WSC, the framework can support an organisation in an exercise of selfdiagnosis that leads to the identification of improvement opportunities to work on. Moreover, by assessing different scenarios for its WSC (e.g. the introduction of new technology, the addition of a new value proposition for a customer), an organisation can anticipate the impacts of changes. Finally, the framework introduced a common vocabulary to be used by researchers and practitioners in different disciplines

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., 0

Collaborative logistics is becoming more important in today’s industry. This is driven by increased environmental concerns, improved efficiency through collaborative planning supporting resources sharing and new business models implementation. This paper explores collaborative logistics and reports on business applications within the forest products industry in Sweden and Canada. It first describes current opportunities in collaborative planning. It then discusses issues related to building the coalition as well as sharing resources and benefits. Three business cases are described and used to support the discussion around these main issues. Finally, different challenges are detailed, opening new paths for researchers in the field., 0

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., 0

Collaborative logistics is increasingly emerging as a new opportunity for cost reduction through internal and cross chains coordination. This paper presents different coordination mechanisms to support collaborative logistics. These mechanisms are differentiated by their planning function, their sharing approach and the information, decision and financial flows. Often, the logistics planning is run first, and secondly, the sharing is set on the basis of the plan. However, recently, new approaches have been proposed where both the logistics plan and the sharing are optimized simultaneously. Constraints on the financial flows also introduce specificities to the coordination mechanisms and these are described and discussed. Finally, the proposed coordination mechanisms are used to describe a series of research and applied projects in which collaborative logistics has been implemented., 0

The chapter focuses on the forest management decisions undertaken by the private industrial forestland owners concerning medium- and short-term forest planning. Firstly, the scope of forest tactical and operational planning is bounded by comparison with strategic planning as presented in this chapter and with the flow and transportation problems as they are presented in Chap. 9. Then, the chapter describes singular tactical and operational harvest planning decision problems, with emphasis on its specific business decisions as well as the modelling and solution approaches often found in the literature. The problems covered include: scheduling of harvesting operations, machine system/team assignment, harvest sequencing, harvest service adjudication, extraction of the logs, bucking & sorting strategies. The chapter further addresses integrated planning problems, distinguishing between problems with anticipation decisions, used to accommodate the impact on/from other planning problems, and fully integrated problems with more than one type of business decisions., 0

The chapter focuses on the forest management decisions undertaken by the private industrial forestland owners concerning medium- and short-term forest planning. Firstly, the scope of forest tactical and operational planning is bounded by comparison with strategic planning as presented in this chapter and with the flow and transportation problems as they are presented in Chap. 9. Then, the chapter describes singular tactical and operational harvest planning decision problems, with emphasis on its specific business decisions as well as the modelling and solution approaches often found in the literature. The problems covered include: scheduling of harvesting operations, machine system/team assignment, harvest sequencing, harvest service adjudication, extraction of the logs, bucking & sorting strategies. The chapter further addresses integrated planning problems, distinguishing between problems with anticipation decisions, used to accommodate the impact on/from other planning problems, and fully integrated problems with more than one type of business decisions., 0

Mange bedrifter ser på samarbeid som en mulighet til å styrke sin egen konkurransekraft, få tilgang til nye markeder og innfri operasjonelle, samfunnsmessige og miljørelaterte krav og restriksjoner. Samtidig har hver enkelt bedrift sine egne målsettinger som danner grunnlag for bedriftens planer og beslutninger. Derfor er det viktig å finne ut hvordan de ulike forretningsenhetene vil fungere sammen, og hvilken verdi samarbeidet vil ha. Ved samarbeid om logistikk er det spesielt viktig å identifisere hvordan logistikkaktivitetene skal planlegges og gjennomføres, og hvordan gevinsten skal fordeles. I skogindustrien konkurrerer bedriftene om salg av sine produkter på markedet, men også om anskaffelse av de ulike tømmermaterialene de trenger. Logistikk knyttet til forsyning og leveranse av ferdige produkter er et viktig ledd i verdikjeden. Selv om flere skogbedrifter ofte driver sin virksomhet i samme område eller marked, er det ikke vanlig med samarbeid mellom to eller flere bedrifter. I denne artikkelen presenteres tre kasusstudier fra skogindustrien der slike samarbeid analyseres, testes og - i to av tilfellene - iverksettes. En vanlig tilnærming har vært å bruke vanlige, driftsbaserte forskningsmodeller og metoder, deriblant spillteori. Resultatet viser at samarbeid kan gi store fordeler, men det er stor variasjon i erfaring og bruk av resultatene. Prosessen har også vist at vi mangler metodikk som dekker reelle behov i bransjen - derfor presenterer vi her en enkel metodikk som kan danne utgangspunkt for et samarbeid.

This paper is based on wood supply chain (WSC) data collected in six countries (Canada, Chile, France, Poland, Sweden, and USA) where a total of 94 local actors and experts were consulted. For each WSC studied, processes for operational plan-ning and execution of the procurement activities were mapped. Descriptions of the information, material and financial flows were also completed. Three basic designs of planning systems were identified, and for each design, a decision matrix was de-vised. WSC agility capabilities were assessed according to a four dimensions refer-ence model and compared with those theoretically required by the environment's uncertainties. When comparing location of the decoupling point, agility capabilities, and average order fulfilment cycle time of each WSC, it was possible to reinforce results found in the literature which state that supply chain agility is linked to shorter order fulfilment cycle time. Finally, the personalisation capabilities of each WSC were assessed and two key processes were identified where most of the product differen-tiation activities along a WSC occur.

In order to beat the competition, access new markets, and respect operational, social, and environmental constraints, enterprises establish collaborations with many other business entities. Furthermore, with costs and information sharing, organizations have the opportunity to optimize their logistics activities. However, each enterprise has its own objectives and typically makes its own planning decisions to meet these objectives. Therefore, it becomes crucial to determine how business entities will work together as well as the value of the collaboration. Specifically, it is necessary to identify how logistics activities will be planned and executed, who will take the leadership of the collaboration, and how benefits will be shared. In this article, we explain how to efficiently build and manage inter-firm relationships. Moreover, we propose five coordination mechanisms that contribute to ensure information sharing, the coordination of logistics activities, and the sharing of benefits. Case studies are used to demonstrate the utility of the framework.

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.

Transportation is an important part of the Canadian furniture industry supply chain. Even though there are often several manufacturers shipping in the same market region, coordination between two or more manufacturers is rare. Recently, important potential cost savings and delivery time reduction have been identified through transportation collaboration. In this paper we propose and test on a case study involving four furniture companies, a logistics scenario that allows transportation collaboration. Moreover, we address the key issue of cost savings sharing, especially when heterogeneous requirements by each collaborating company impact the cost-savings. To do so, we propose a new cost allocation method that is validated through a case study. Sensibility analysis and details about the actual outcome of the case study complete the discussion.

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.