Logistics

Design, planning and control of complex and integrated solutions are some of the most important keys to the competitiveness and innovativeness of enterprises. Unfortunately a lack of connectivity often hampers the way to efficient value added in production and logistics networks, since not all of the information you need is available on time. Especially in the automotive industry in which each process is timed closely and production has to stop when a part is not delivered just in time, the interfaces between the different departments of a company or even between whole logistics networks play an important role. For this reason, the FIR at the RWTH Aachen researches intensively to solve these issues with innovative concepts.

The concern of an interdisciplinary research project called Dynamo PLV from institutes of the TU Darmstadt and the European Business School is to combine the three topics production, logistics and traffic and merge them together. Goal of the project is to generate holistic approaches to resolve disciplinary boundaries. Integrated value adding networks which can already be located in the automotive industry will have strong effects on competitiveness of industrial locations in the future. This calls for an overlapping consideration of the systems production, logistics and traffic. Aim of this paper is to show and identify the differing interests and conflicts between the actors of a value adding network from the automotive industry. Conflicting goals between multi-layers like intra-company areas (logistics and procurement) or areas along the supply chain (supplier and OEM) or beyond the supply chain (companies and public authorities) prevent optimal resource use and reduce ...

One of the main challenges in urban logistic is the collaborated handling of freight transportation and urban public transport. Especially during peak periods, e.g. when commuters travel between their place of residence and place of work, the urban infrastructure for car traffic and public transport risks to collapse. In addition, often the freight transportation in urban areas competes with the public transport because of the use of the same road infrastructure. Therefore, it would make sense also to use free capacities of public transportations like trams for freight transports. First, this paper analyzes current concepts of urban logistics and concepts for the use of freight trams. Second, a new approach for the use of autonomous trolleys combined with the use of public trams will be introduced by the authors.

Decreasing costs in transport and communications as well as some other often globally significant factors made today´s international trade more extensive than ever before. Industrial products are the most important good of the time we live in and the trade in services, too, is increasingly gaining significance. Companies which intend to join or extend businesses with Russia are in need of reliable logistics partners for those markets, which are still in the process of being established and which place very special requirements on anyone who wants to be successful there. This article provides information on the nature of such requirements, the manner in which German enterprises master them and on what interested entrepreneurs should keep in mind.

Within the BRIC states the Russian economy seems to be a latecomer. Especially in comparison to China’s economy, which has grown with rates up to eleven percent during the last years, the Russian economy develops more slowly. However, Russia’s economy still offers good opportunities to foreign countries. In particular large public funded investment projects for modernising Russia’s infrastructure will require foreign technology and corresponding machines within the next years. With an increase in demand, the choice of a suitable supply chain strategy becomes more and more important for foreign companies participating in the Russian market.

In industrial environments conveyor-technical arrangements for the transport of the working components between the several production steps are essential. The coverage of the real movements and speeds, which often entail deviations of the planned actions, is used to realize an efficient optimization of these variable logistics.

The relevance of wind energy for the German energy supply increases steadily. This development is driven by the German withdrawal from nuclear energy as well as the ambitious climate policy goals. Furthermore, the fossil energy resources are limited. The logistic network which is needed to create an offshore-wind park is affected by dynamic disturbances like weather conditions as well as other influences. They have an impact on the material-pull which is initiated by the offshore construction site. Already scheduled processes cannot be proceeded which necessitates rescheduling of material flow process-plans. Sometimes material is also pushed back into the network.

The importance of sustainable planning and managing of networks by logistics concepts is rising. However, estimating these logistics concepts under sustainability aspects is a problem which many logistics managers have to face. The impact of logistics concepts to the target figures in a sustainable performance measurement system highly depends on the correlation between the variables. In this paper the correlation between the target figures within the functional areas of procurement, production, distribution and service are depicted. Based on these findings a cross-functional causal loop diagram is derived.

Logistics is one of the biggest trade volume industry sectors in Germany. External factors of influence are pushing the logistics sector to redesign its processes and operating activities environmentally. In the practical experience methodical tools are missing which help to identify environmental potential for optimization, to evaluate it and to document quantitatively the realized improvement. One possibility to combine the environmental and the financial point of view in intralogistics is demonstrating a novel reference model. With this model weaknesses can be identified and appropriate goals and activities can be defined to improve them. The combination of the reference model with a data base system affords to simulate and to review the effects of the activities just before their operational realization. The application of the reference model and its benefits for the contract logistics enterprises will be characterized in this article.

Over the last decades, the cement industries achieved significant efficiency enhancements in their production processes. The so-called “co-processing”, the use of waste as a source of energy and raw material, was found to be both ecologically and economically beneficial. Cement plants can partially replace all fossil fuels by alternative ones and thus achieve significant reduction of cost and carbon footprint. Yet, in this context special challenges regarding supply chain management emerge. While respecting goals like quality, cost and delivery reliability, changing conditions need to be considered. Examples may be new regulations and the question of waste availability at nearby located industries as well as the desire to engage in long-term supply relationships. This article shows the relevant interrelations and presents approaches in order to contribute to a more efficient development of these supply chain relationships.