Logistics systems management

Context

The transport and logistics market is faced with significant challenges:

• The environmental impact of traditional transport methods and increasingly stringent environmental regulations concerning mobility. For example, urban freight transport represents 25% of city CO₂ emissions;
• Growing urbanization, making it increasingly difficult to drive in major cities owing to record levels of congestion. For example, last mile delivery represents 20% of total distribution chain costs;
• A rapidly developing market in terms of technological progress and therefore the need for operators to track these developments;
• Fluctuating fuel prices.

For transport and logistics stakeholders, it is vital to be able to take all these factors into consideration when defining itineraries and selecting strategic locations.

Solution

The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) has developed two geographical information systems for logistics and urban logistics. This solution has the benefit of modelling an environment which is complex, due both to the multitude of collected data and the interactions between this data.

Applied to logistics, this tool makes it possible to determine the optimal location for freight areas, storage and parking, charging stations for electric cars, new railway stations, bus stops etc. This tool helps to improve the decision-making process. It integrates and synthesizes dynamic big data from different sources, generates possible scenarios by taking the multimodal dimension into consideration, simulates different scenarios and indicates optimal locations. It also makes it possible to view solutions and check the impact of any decisions taken.

Applied to urban logistics, LIST has developed another tool called Smart City Logistics, which is a decision support platform for urban logistics implemented for the following European cities: Luxembourg (LU), London (UK), Brussels (BE) and Bergamo (IT). Smart City Logistics*, developed as part of a European programme, provides decision-makers with a wide range of easy-to-understand information to facilitate the development of urban freight plans . The Smart City Logistics platform maps transport networks, access restrictions, traffic measures, delivery and transport facilities, administrative units, population, land use and pollution levels.

In addition to viewing features, Smart City Logistics offers statistical analysis tools. As a result, thanks to the aggregation of urban logistics data, it is possible for users to study current trends, identify patterns and establish relationships between the information being studied more easily.

Advantages

The solutions developed by LIST make it possible to:

• model an environment which is complex, due both to the multitude of collected data and the interactions between this data;
• take the multimodal dimension into consideration (road, rail, sea, air);
• create and test scenarios in terms of organization, regulations and logistics operations;
• check the impact of measures taken (economic, environmental and social);
• visually represent data for an improved understanding of the existing situation;
• integrate routing.

Possible applications

• Transport logistics, for example to provide a "dynamic" definition of itineraries and freight and storage area locations;
• Public transport, for example to organize transport in a region, define the location of bus stops, stations, car-sharing area locations etc.

Clients

• Public, national and local authorities (cities, regions etc.)
• Transport communities
• Logistics operators
• Transport service providers
• Commercial operators
   

*This tool was developed as part of an Interreg project