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The Physical Internet (PI) is a paradigm-changing and technology-driven vision, which is expected to significantly impact the development of the freight transport and logistics (FTL) system of today. However, the development of the FTL system towards the PI creates much uncertainty for its current stakeholders. Ports are one of those stakeholders that are expected to be profoundly affected by these developments. However, research that focuses on port policy, under the uncertain developments towards the PI, is still lacking. By providing port authorities with insights and recommendations on robust policy areas, we address this void in literature. We conduct a scenario analysis in combination with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to determine the importance of port performance indicators and policy areas in different scenarios. The most significant, uncertain, and orthogonal factors for the development of the PI are technological development and institutional development. We find that for a proper alignment with the PI vision, in three out of four scenarios, ports should prioritize the implementation of digital solutions and standards, as opposed to an infrastructure focused policy.

Last-mile logistics is regarded as an essential yet highly expensive component of parcel logistics. In dense urban environments, this is partially caused by inherent inefficiencies due to traffic congestion and the disparity and accessibility of customer locations. In parcel logistics, access hubs are facilities supporting relay-based last-mile activities by offering temporary storage locations enabling the decoupling of last-mile activities from the rest of the urban distribution chain. This paper focuses on a novel tactical problem: the geographically dynamic deployment of pooled relocatable storage capacity modules in an urban parcel network operating under space-time uncertainty. In particular, it proposes a two-stage stochastic optimization model for the access hub dynamic pooled capacity deployment problem with synchronization of underlying operations through travel time estimates, and a solution approach based on a rolling horizon algorithm with lookahead and a benders decomposition able to solve large scale instances of a real-sized megacity. Numerical results, inspired by the case of a large parcel express carrier, are provided to evaluate the computational performance of the proposed approach and suggest up to 28% last-mile cost savings and 26% capacity savings compared to a static capacity deployment strategy., Comment: 36 pages, 10 figures

The Physical Internet (PI) is a relatively young and compelling vision about the freight transport and logistics system of the future. Besides showing how many technological and organizational innovations could converge in a real-world logistics system, it also addresses cross-industry interests such as digitalization, standardization, resilience, and environmental sustainability. In the logistics R&D community, the PI is already inspiring new designs of loading and packaging material, architectures for collaboration, and open information exchange, as well as algorithms for system-wide optimization. Our focus is on the position and role of maritime ports within the PI, as the transport hubs that facilitate most of the world's international trade. We introduce the key notions of the PI vision and expand on the unique position of maritime ports in the PI with the respective challenges this may create. Finally, we discuss the requirements for maritime ports to be ready to take up their role in the PI. We found that policy directions for ports to contribute to the development and implementation of the PI lie within the areas of transport infrastructure, (PI) standardization, advanced terminal areas, ICT hardware, information systems (IS) and platforms, and sustainability management.

With recent breakthroughs in technology and digitalization, omnichannel retailing has now become the norm, and shoppers are able to seamlessly make the switch between different channels for one purchase. Retailers can leverage the blurred lines between the channels and adopt a business model that best suits the industry, such as having a virtual online showcase and letting the customers pick up the products in person or having an offline showroom and having products delivered to customers. The latter concept, in which information about products is gathered in a store or a showroom and fulfillment is made via delivery to customers, is particularly suitable when the customers prefer to experience the products in person to gain sufficient confidence in their potential purchase. This is often the case for high-value large products with high shipping costs. In this context, we propose a quantitative approach to optimize the showcasing portfolio for a given retailer to maximize the exposure of the features that customers expect to experience from a visit to a showroom. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer optimization problem to maximize the expected customer showcasing utility through module and product showcasing and product testing. To demonstrate the practicality of our approach, we conduct a case study based on real data obtained from 17 dealerships of our industrial partner, a manufacturer of recreational vehicles. The numerical results of this case study show that the expected showcasing utility for a retailer can significantly increase, even in the presence of spatial and/or budget constraints.

International audience; Supply Chain (SC) uncertainty perspectives must now be translated into practice. SC entities must accept crises and catastrophes as normal situations and increase significantly their culture of SC risk management. They should adapt their decision-support systems to be able considering disruptions as regular inputs, whether small, large or huge. Collaboration should not be limited to few entities of a SC, but to the whole SC. Concrete tools allowing entities to share vital information to give visibility, ensure synchronization of the material flows, align management of emergencies and use of critical resources must be developed and used. That is the purpose of this paper. Practically, aframework for SC risk and opportunity management and a Collaborative and Open Supply Chain Management Operating Services (COSMOS) platform are presented. An illustrative case is developed to highlight the potential benefits of the proposal on one service example.

International audience; This article studies the distribution problem of brick-and-mortar retailers aiming to integrate the online channel into their operations. The article presents an integrated modeling approach addressing the online channel-driven distribution network deployment (e-DND) problem under uncertainty. The e-DND involves decisions on operating fulfillment platforms and on assigning a fulfillment mission to those platforms, while anticipating the revenues and costs induced by order fulfillment, replenishment, delivery, and inventory holding. To model this problem while taking into account the uncertain nature of multi-item online orders, store sales, and capacities, a two-stage stochastic program with mixed-integer recourse is developed. Two alternative deployment strategies, characterized by allocation of orders, inventory positioning, delivery schema, and inbound flow pattern decisions, are investigated using this model. The first deployment strategy investigates the ship-from stores practice where the on-hand inventory is used for all sales channels. The second deployment strategy additionally considers the advanced positioning of inventory at a fulfillment center in the urban area where the online orders are requested. To solve the two-stage stochastic model with integer recourse, an exact solution approach combining scenario sampling and the integer L-shaped method is proposed. Numerical results, inspired by the case of a European retailer, are provided to evaluate the performance of the deployment strategies and the efficiency of the proposed solution approach.

International audience; This editorial introduces this Special Issue on advances in research on digital interoperability and transformation in logistics and supply chain management. Eleven high-quality and original research works from both researchers and practitioners in the area have been selected to compose this Special Issue. This editorial first introduces the scientific context relevant to the Special Issue, then presents each of the eleven papers. From these papers, this editorial identifies several interesting prospective works, which are finally presented.

The Physical Internet and hyperconnected logistics concepts promise an open, more efficient and environmentally friendly supply chain for goods. Blockchain and Internet of Things technologies are increasingly regarded as main enablers of improvements in this domain. We describe how blockchain and smart contracts present the potential of being applied to hyperconnected logistics by showing a concrete example of its implementation., 8 pages, accepted for publication in IT Professional

International audience; In the aftermath of a disaster, supplying relief items to affected people is a real challenge for humanitarian organizations. Showing a lack of effectiveness in the response, their practices are put into question. The Physical Internet approach, aiming at reorganizing logistics in a way for improved resource management and better coordination of actors while meeting the stakeholders and environment growing expectations, seems relevant for the humanitarian sector reinvention. However, this assumption needs to be proved through a rigorous scientific process. In this perspective, the paper offers to frame the design of an experiment based on a flow simulation model to evaluate the relevance of the Physical Internet concepts application in a humanitarian context. The steps defined, inspired by the system engineering field, ensure that the simulation meets the objective while ensuring the experiment reliability.; La livraison de produits de première nécessité aux victimes des catastrophes naturelles représente un véritable défi pour les organisations humanitaires. Critiquées pour un manque d'efficacité, elles doivent aujourd'hui chercher à se réinventer. L'approche Internet Physique, qui propose une réorganisation de la logistique pour une meilleure gestion des ressources et coordination des acteurs tout en répondant aux exigences croissantes des parties prenantes et environnementales, pourrait s'avérer pertinente pour le secteur humanitaire. Cependant, cette hypothèse demande à être vérifiée au travers d'une démarche scientifique rigoureuse. Dans cette perspective, l'article propose la structuration d'une expérience basée sur un modèle de simulation de flux afin d'évaluer la pertinence de l'application de concepts de l'Internet Physique à un contexte humanitaire. Les étapes définies, inspirées des concepts de l'ingénierie des systèmes, permettent de garantir à la simulation son adéquation avec l'objectif de l'expérience et sa fiabilité.

International audience

International audience; Interoperability is playing an increasing role for today’s logistics and supply chain management (LSCM) because of the trends of cooperation or coopetition. Especially, digital interoperability concerning data or information exchange becomes a key enabler for the next evolutions that will massively rely upon digitalization, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems. The notion of Physical Internet (PI) is one such evolution, an innovative worldwide logistic paradigm aimed at interconnecting and coordinating logistics networks for efficiency and sustainability. This paper investigates how digital interoperability can help interconnect logistics and supply networks as well as the operational solutions for sustainable development, and examines the new challenges and research opportunities for digital interoperability under the PI paradigm. To this end, we study the most relevant technologies for digital interoperability in LSCM, via a bibliometric analysis based on 208 papers published during 2010−2020. The results reveal that the present state-of-the-art solutions of digital interoperability are not fully aligned with PI requirements and show new challenges, research gaps and opportunities that need further discussion. Accordingly, several research avenues are suggested to advance research and applications in this area, and to achieve interconnection in logistics and supply networks for sustainability.

International audience; Nowadays, Humanitarian Supply Chain stakes are changing drastically, implying a need for new methods and tools. One of the most promising evolution is definitively "Physical Internet". The current research work investigates how to assess the potential benefits and limits of using the Physical Internet paradigm within Humanitarian Supply Chains. Practically, the proposal provides (i) a systems engineering-oriented framework and (ii) a set of specific modeling features. This contribution will allow assessing efficiently and accurately, impacts of Physical Internet in Humanitarian context. Finally, the paper develops avenues for further research based on the proposal.

Maritime ports are an integral part of global trade and the supply network system. An upcoming paradigm for innovation in this system is that of the Physical Internet (PI). This highly advanced way of shipping will present a very different logistics environment with respective challenges for maritime ports. For those investing in or operating port systems, it is important to understand whether different service quality aspects will be important in this future system, compared to today. Our paper deals with the port performance evaluation and selection problem. Although it has been studied extensively in a contemporary context, there has been no exploration of the criteria and preferences of decision-makers in the future shipping environment of the PI. Our objective is to define these criteria and explore their weighting in this new context. We propose two distinct autonomous decision-makers for port performance evaluation and selection in the PI: intelligent containers and vessels. We identify future port performance evaluation and selection criteria, and analyse their weighting based on an expert survey, complementing the extant literature on port performance evaluation and selection, and the PI. We use the Bayesian Best-Worst Method (BWM) to derive weights for the criteria. We find that, compared to the current port performance evaluation and selection literature, in a first stage in the modelling of intelligent agents’ performance preferences, subtle differences in weights mark the step from the present towards the PI. Partly, this is reassuring for port authorities as they can manage largely the same set of performance indicators to be attractive for both decision-makers. However, the results also show differences between agents, with an increased importance of, in particular, Level of Service, Network Interconnectivity, and Information Systems.

The evolution of assembly lines towards the production of highly customized goods requires some organizational changes. The use of kits, providing presorted parts to assembly stations, was initiated by the need to supply a multitude of parts and their variants to the assembly line. In this paper, we investigate the kitting cell design problem and propose an optimization model to minimize the material handling, investment, and space costs for kitting cells. We show that applying our model to an automotive company's kitting cell can reduce the total cost by approximately up to 11% compared with heuristics approaches. Copyright (C) 2021 The Authors.

International audience; At the time of instability becomes the norm (climate changes, natural disasters, epidemic, etc.) the management of collaborative networks, such as supply chains, is becoming more and more complex and critical. This instability only adds to the complexity of an already very complex system. Thus, supply chain managers have to adapt to multi-dimensional complex situations. Dealing with instability is a key expectation for these managers. One tool to help managers make decisions in this unstable environment is simulation. This article introduces some first results on an “atomic” reconfigurable supply chain simulation model based on Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model. This simulation tool will be used to apply an innovative physics-based approach of risk and opportunity management, that designs disturbances by forces moving the considered supply chain within its performance framework. This approach enables managers to monitor supply chain’s performance trajectory by viewing and merging the impact of risks and opportunities.

The Physical Internet (PI), a new vision for the future of the global freight transport and logistics system, describes a geographical hierarchy of interconnected networks of networks, from the urban, to the national, the continental, and the global level. Like today, in PI the maritime ports will fulfil roles as continental and global hubs. Differently than ports today, however, decisions to split and bundle cargo across ships and other modes will not be made solely on the basis of long-term agreements by ports, but rather ever more dynamically and in real-time, aiming to reconsolidate shipments within the port area. This implies a need to reconsider the currently used information systems (ISs), and to gain understanding of future requirements to satisfy their needs. We exploit a design science research (DSR) approach to shape these requirements. Among the many components of future ISs, we study ports’ track-and-trace (T&T) capability. The proposed information architecture (IA) enables to integrate T&T capability in PI ports by means of information carried on PI containers into the logistics chain via an open interface platform, which also supports interoperability among the various actors’ ISs. The design is based on the Reference Architecture Model for Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0). This model supports the analysis of PI ports in key dimensions along with hierarchical logistics entities, which could be used as a blueprint for IAs of PI ports, globally. We provide insights into the approach's applicability by means of the illustrative case of Teesport, located in Northeast England (United Kingdom).

International audience; Managing a Collaborative Network (such as a supply chain) requires setting and pursuing objectives. These can be represented and evaluated by formal Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Managing a supply chain aims to stretch its KPIs towards target values. Therefore, any Collaborative Network’s goal is to monitor its trajectory within the framework of its KPIs. Currently potentiality (risk or opportunity) management is based on the capacity of managers to analyze increasingly complex situations. The new approach presented in this paper opens the door to a new methodology for supply chain potentiality management. It offers an innovative data-driven approach that takes data as input and applies physical principles for supporting decision-making processes to monitor supply chain’s performance. With that approach, potentialities are seen as forces that push or pull the network within its multi-dimensional KPI space.

Although the rise of e-commerce encourages the customers to order online and get the products shipped from the warehouse, for high value goods they still want to experience the product in person to gain confidence in their purchase. Furthermore, with the Physical Internet and highly efficient, interconnected networks, goods can be delivered fast and reliably, enabling the showcasing model to be an integral part of the supply chain. Goods do not need be stored in retail shops anymore as they can be shipped from available connected sources. Such changes accentuate the role of showcasing, and a decision support system to optimize the showcase that best meet customer’s expectation is needed. We thus propose a model for measuring and optimizing the showcasing value for a retailer, specifically focusing on recreational vehicle dealerships as an illustrative example. Even when the exact desired features are not available, the customer can gain partial confidence from similar features. We first introduce the concept of showcasing value. The showcasing optimization problem is then formulated as a mixed integer programming problem, where the objective function maximizes the sum of showcase representation value for all features in the showroom, given the feature demand shares and the weight of the feature categories. Computational experiments are conducted with data from the industry, focusing on dealerships in a region in United Sates. Our results indicate that a significant increase in the showcasing value can be achieved through an optimized showcase with little or no extra budget.

International audience; In the view of the issues faced by humanitarian organizations to deliver beneficiaries in an effective, efficient and sustainable manner, the Physical Internet (PI) approach offers potential as an appropriate solution. Indeed, its high resilience, adaptability, efficiency and sustainability capabilities are attractive yet need to be proved as relevant and suitable for the humanitarian sector. Based on this consideration, it is judicious to assess the potential benefits of introducing Physical Internet concepts to humanitarian organizations and demonstrate the impact on performance. In this perspective, this paper proposes a methodology to organize such an investigation as well as some first experimental illustrations to present the approach and to highlight early positive insights.

The arising awareness of drug safety has brought tremendous demands on improving traceability and transparency in the supply chain. Conventionally, centralized/distributed database-based traceability platforms are adopted by many drug companies to control drug quality and improve transparency levels. However, it is still challenging to link drug stakeholders into an information-sharing chain due to the potential data manipulations and interest conflicts. In this context, this paper proposes a unified five-layer Blockchain and Internet of Things-based smart tracking and tracing (BIoT3, in short) platform to provide a decentralized traceability solution in the drug supply chain. Following the five-layer blockchain platform architecture, a practical roadmap is provided for the drug industry to achieve blockchain design, development, application, and evaluation. Moreover, three core enabling components are presented: IoT-based drug identity management, on-chain & off-chain mechanism, smart contract-enabled drug services. According to the real data from collaborating companies, the feasibility and efficiency of the BIoT3 platform have been verified using Hyperledger Fabric blockchain. The case study demonstrates that it not only gains useful insights into transaction sizes configuration for optimal blockchain performance, but also provides a feasible blockchain-based solution for drug traceability and visibility.

International audience; This paper is one pillar of a research project aimed to design a decision support system supporting collaborative Supply Chain Risk Management among logistics network stakeholders. It presents the motivation behind this objective, and the contribution towards this objective: a methodology to automatically deduce all the supply chain options enabled by a logistics network to fulfil the demand. This methodology is introduced as part of a decision support automation framework for Supply Chain Risk and Opportunity Management among logistics network stakeholders. The methodology focuses on strategic and tactical supply chain decisions, and on manufacturing stakeholders.

In today’s fast-paced global economy, entrepreneurs increasingly tend to holistically design their business ventures during the early stages of business creation. This tendency highlights the need ...

International audience; Supply chains now cope with a lot of uncertainties, and their stakeholders are intensely interconnected, revealing new opportunities at a tremendous pace. In this context, companies must rethink their decision support systems to remain competitive. Particularly strategic supply chain capacity planning systems that should ensure resource availability. Unfortunately, existing systems do not satisfactorily consider this new deal. Therefore, this paper develops a conceptual framework providing guidelines for designing a decision support system for strategic supply chain capacity planning under uncertainty. To validate the conceptual framework, a decision support system has been designed accordingly, and two industrial experiments have been conducted.

The combination of the Internet of Things and blockchain-based technologies represents a real opportunity for supply chain and logistics protagonists, who need more dynamic, trustworthy and transparent tracking systems in order to improve their efficiency and strengthen customer confidence. In parallel, hyperconnected logistics promise more efficient and sustainable goods handling and delivery. This chapter shows how the Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts can be used to implement a shareable and secured tracking system for hyperconnected logistics. A simulation using the well-known AnyLogic software tool provides insights on the monitoring of properties depicting shipment lifecycle constraints through a stream of blockchain log events processed by BeepBeep 3, an open source stream processing engine.

Part 7: Risk and Security Modeling; International audience; Management Science tries to enable managers and decision-makers to take the desired solutions to guide systems toward their objectives. This requires identifying the different dimensions of the system. Organizations and enterprises are complex systems associated with uncertainties in dynamic business contexts, that interact with their environments. Due to pressures such as collaborations with their customers, suppliers, their environment, the seek for innovations, etc., the performance may be changed by internal and external risks and opportunities that push and pull the enterprises like forces. Thanks to Physics of Decision (PoD), by identifying these pressures according to the organization’s features and objectives, unstable conditions due to the forces, can be detected and identified as risks and opportunities. This article attempts to present a time-dependent dynamic framework, based on a physical approach to identify risks and opportunities seen as forces applied on Organizations and Enterprises.

“© © 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.”; International audience; Strategic supply chain planning and supply chain risk management are two fields of supply chain management that are inseparable nowadays. The ability to consider risks is essential to maintain business performance. In addition, integrating the different business departments’ visions in a common business vision is necessary to properly plan the future of a company. However, it is still a challenge for companies to design and maintain a decision-making process supporting strategic supply chain decisions that integrates risk management and unify business vision across departments. This paper relates an industrial experiment as an attempt to meet this challenge. This experiment was asked by a pharmaceutical company with the aim of supporting strategic decisions regarding its network of suppliers. It led to a decision-making process including the use of a computerized information system composed of a software for computations and a business intelligence software to easily make decisions. This process was put in practice on a pilot use case with two years old data. It resulted in the identification of several decisions that could have been made if the process was in operation two years ago, which is considered as a first validation of the approach. Finally, limitations have been identified regarding the data collection, opening avenues for future research on an innovative approach combining supply chain hyperconnectivity and event-driven principles.

Retail networks offering high-value products with a broad mix of models, such as cars, employ on-demand inventory transshipments to avoid lost sales due to incomplete product availability. Advances in information technology, digitalization, and new emerging concepts in logistics systems such as the physical internet are facilitating the exploitation of fast and economical on-demand inventory transshipments through shared supply resources, resulting in the broader employment of on-demand transshipments in retailing and the establishment of interconnected retail networks. In such environments, the inventory profile does not alone reflect the readiness of a retail center to satisfy a customer; rather, network availability must be considered in addition to in-stock products to fully account for the potential demand that a retailer can satisfy. We propose a new model to estimate product availability in a closed-form expression under uncertain demand and in the presence of customer substitution and inventory transshipment for an omnichannel retail network consisting of retailers distributing high-value substitutable products. Our model estimates product availability for all available shopping channels considering both in-stock and network availability while accounting for the trade-off between transshipment costs and the additional customer satisfaction gained through exploring more-distant alternatives. The results of implementing the model on a pilot project for a case of recreational vehicles show that monitoring and improving product availability by the proposed model can achieve a significant reduction in supply chain-induced lost sales.

RESUMEUn consensus existe dans la litterature : la cle du succes dans l’exploitation d’une technologie de la communication et de l’information (TIC) est l’innovation systemique du modele d’affaires de l’entreprise. L’objectif de cet article est d’etudier pourquoi et comment les entreprises procedent a une innovation de leur modele d’affaires en exploitant les TIC. La comparaison de trois cas d’entreprises a permis de formuler neuf propositions mettant en evidence des dynamiques d’innovation par rupture, les liens entre types de motivations strategiques a innover, et configurations de l’organisation du processus d’innovation, ainsi que l’importance de l’apprentissage organisationnel et du leadership.

Last-mile logistics is an essential yet highly expensive component of city logistics responsible for many nuisances in urban areas. Mobile access hubs are flexible consolidation and transshipment points aiming at creating more sustainable city logistics systems by dynamically using urban space as logistics facilities. In this paper, we examine the potential of mobile access hub deployments for urban parcel logistics by identifying the impact of design parameters on economic and environmental performance. We propose a mathematical modeling framework and an integer program to assess the performance of mobile access hub deployments, and study the impact of a set of design parameters through synthetic cases and an illustrative case inspired from a large parcel express carrier&rsquo, s operations. Results indicate design flexibility relative to the location of hubs and pronounced advantages in highly variable environments. The illustrative case shows significant savings potential in terms of cost and time efficiency as well as environmental sustainability. It emphasizes a trade-off between operational efficiency and environmental sustainability that can be balanced to achieve global sustainability goals while being economically sound.