Safety of a logistics chain: a case-study

This case-study addresses the cost of occupational safety and the prevention of materials damage throughout the entire course of a logistic chain. The data and observations are drawn from the paper industry in Finland which represents a significant part of all of logistics there. In the course of the study detailed information on materials damage and occupational safety was collected in order to calculate the actual costs throughout the logistics chain. It was found that most of the material damage to the paper reels took occurred in the harbor operations, but often the damage was not noticed until the paper reached the final customer. The flow of information, co-operation between the various parties of the chain, and the training of employees have proven to be important in improving the safety of a logistic chain as well as the need to not only examine safety risks within isolated organizational units, but to consider the interactions between causes and effects across the entire chain.