David Menachof

Scenario analysis and disaster preparedness for port and maritime logistics risk management

System Dynamics (SD) modelling is used to investigate the impacts of policy interventions on industry actors preparedness to mitigate risks and to recover from disruptions along the maritime logistics and supply chain network. The model suggests a bi-directional relation between regulation and industry actors behaviour towards Disaster Preparedness (DP) in maritime logistics networks. The model also showed that the level of DP is highly contingent on forecast accuracy, technology change, attitude to risk prevention, port activities, and port environment.

Exploring the link between IT systems and the outsourcing of logistics activities: a transaction cost perspective

This study explores the relationship between the expansion of information technology (IT) systems and the outsourcing of logistics activities. Transaction cost theory was adopted to explain this relationship. The research model for this study consists of the degree of IT as an independent variable, the degree of outsourcing of logistics activities as a dependent variable and different types of transaction costs as mediators. The results show that companies that utilise more IT tend to outsource their logistics activities more than those who do not transact electronically, as IT utilisation facilitates outsourcing through reductions in transaction costs.

A combined supply chain optimisation model for the installation phase of offshore wind projects

This paper proposes a combined model for port selection and supply chain optimisation for the installation phase of an offshore wind farm. Two strategic models are proposed where the first model, based on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), aims to select the most suitable installation port. The second model is developed using Integer Linear Programming (ILP) in order to determine the optimal transportation schedule of the components from suppliers to the chosen installation port. The proposed models are evaluated for the West Gabbard (UK) offshore wind farm located in southern part of the North Sea. According to the computational results, the AHP model chooses port of Oostende, Belgium as the most suitable installation port for this offshore wind farm whereas the proposed supply chain model shows that the total transportation cost makes up 9% of total supply chain cost.

Doing the right thing – ethical issues in logistics and supply chain

‘Doing the Right Thing – Ethical Issues in Logistics and Supply Chain’ was the theme of the 2016 LRN conference. In developing this theme, we wanted to find something meaningful for participants to...