Physical Internet

The question of how horizontal collaboration can be achieved in the Physical Internet is so far unanswered. The advantages of collaboration do not seem to outweigh the concerns about trust and data security, which is why only a few companies focus on joint logistics activities. Instead, logistics processes are increasingly in-sourced. However, even such internalization raises questions regarding free market structures. This paper provides an overview of horizontal collaboration in logistics and to what extent in-sourcing of logistics processes might be the easier solution to implement the Physical Internet.

The urban population is growing and with it the need to meet the emerging challenges with sustainable solutions. The concept of the Physical Internet (PI) represents such an approach, which includes a complete supply chain perspective, but also a direct effect on the urban environment. At the same time, its implementation comes with requirements for the integration into the city district, which makes it necessary to adapt various urban characteristics. This article creates a generic design framework for this.

The Physical Internet is based on physical, digital, and operational interconnectivity, without which a globally fragmented and standardized freight transport system could not operate efficiently. Valid input data are necessary for the self-control of global flows of goods. In addition, a high level of trust in control decisions is essential for a far-reaching acceptance of all actors and customers in the logistics industry. These two goals can only be achieved by high data-quality. In addition to increasing data-quality through automation or the use of advanced sensor technology, methods of data-fusion and decision-fusion offer great potential. This article describes a methodical approach to analyze these potentials. Furthermore, this procedure is exemplarily carried out using a transit center.

Due to the increasing complexity of cross-company transportation, it becomes more and more difficult to ensure a correct inventory of loading tackles throughout the entire supply chain. The use of a state-of-the-art SaaS (software as a service) solution simplifies, standardize and automate inventory management to reduce administrative effort as well as resources of time and money.