Jean-François Audy

A framework for an efficient implementation of logistics collaborations

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 efficiently build and manage inter-firms relationships. Moreover, we propose five coordination mechanisms that contribute to ensure information sharing, the coordination of logistics activities and the share of benefits. Case studies are used to demonstrate the utility of the framework.

Cost allocation in the establishment of a collaborative transportation agreement—an application in the furniture industry

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.

Business Models for Collaborative Planning in Transportation: an Application to Wood Products

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. Lately, 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.

Impact of Benefit Sharing Among Companies in the Implantation of a Collaborative Transportation System - An Application in the Furniture Industry

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.

Issues and Experiences in Logistics Collaboration

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.

Transportation and Routing

Transportation accounts for a significant part of wood procurement cost, and this has generated a considerable amount of R&D efforts in many countries. In this chapter, we first introduce the vital role played by transportation in the forest value chain, and stress the information needed for decision making. Following this, we distinguish the different transportation planning decisions made at the strategic, tactical, operational and real time levels, and highlight their integration with other decisions in the forest value chain. For each level, we present a number of transportation problems and related solution methods. The strategic level often deals with designing the network and transportation mode selection, while the tactical level mainly concerns allocation rules. The operational level typically involves a vehicle routing problem, and wood reception is discussed at the real time level. Four examples of successful applications in industry are also described and the results are reported. Lastly, the chapter is concluded with open research topics.

Tactical and Operational Harvest Planning

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.

Generic Mechanisms for Coordinating Operations and Sharing Financial Benefits in Collaborative Logistics

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 logis- tics plan and the sharing are optimized simultaneously. Constraints on the fi- nancial flows also introduce specificities to the coordination mechanisms and these are described and discussed. Finally, the proposed coordination mecha- nisms are used to describe a series of research and applied projects in which collaborative logistics has been implemented.