Real-Time Decision Making in First Mile and Last Mile Logistics: How Smart Scheduling Affects Energy Efficiency of Hyperconnected Supply Chain Solutions

Last mile delivery in logistics and supply chain management: a bibliometric analysis and future directions

Purpose

The main objective of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review (SLR) and structured insight into last mile delivery, ultimately identifying gaps in current knowledge and proposing a framework for future research direction in terms of sustainability in the area.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper identifies and synthesizes information from academic journals and examines “Journals and Publishing place,” “Geographic location,” “Year of Publication,” “University and Author Affiliation,” “Themes and Sub-themes,” “Theory,” “Research Design, Methods and Area” and “Industry Involvement.” A collection of online databases from 2005 to 2020 were explored, using the keywords “Last mile delivery,” “Last mile logistics,” “Last mile transportation,” “Last mile fulfillment,” “Last mile operations” and “Last mile distribution” in their title and/or abstract and/or keywords. Accordingly, a total of 281 journal articles were found in this discipline area, and data were derived from a succession of variables.

Findings

There has been significant growth in published articles concerning last mile delivery over the last 15 years (2005–2020). An in-depth review of the literature shows five dimensions of the last mile: last mile delivery, transportation, operations, distribution and logistics. Each of these dimensions is interrelated and possess clustered characteristics. For instance, last mile operations, last mile transportation and last mile delivery are operational, whereas last mile distribution is tactical, and last mile logistics possess strategic characteristics. The findings also indicate that even though the sustainability concept can be incorporated into all levels of the last mile, the current literature landscape mainly concentrates on the operational level.

Research limitations/implications

This review is limited to academic sources available from Emerald Insight, Science Direct, Taylor and Francis, Springer, MDPI and IEEE containing the mentioned keywords in the title and/or abstract/or keywords. Furthermore, only papers from high-quality, peer-reviewed journals were evaluated. Other sources such as books and conference papers were not included.

Practical implications

This study dissects last mile delivery to produce a framework that captures and presents its complex characteristics and its interconnectedness with various related components. By analyzing last mile delivery in its entirety, the framework also helps practitioners pinpoint which levels of last mile delivery (operation, tactical or strategic) they can incorporate the concept of sustainability.

Originality/value

The research findings enrich the contemporary literature landscape and future work by providing a conceptual framework that incorporates the “economic,” “environmental” and “social” pillars of sustainability in all dimensions of the last mile delivery.

Characterization and Design for Last Mile Logistics: A Review of the State of the Art and Future Directions

One of the most challenging problems in last mile logistics (LML) has been the strategic delivery due to various market risks and opportunities. This paper provides a systematic review of LML-related studies to find current issues and future opportunities for the LML service industry. To that end, 169 works were selected as target studies for in-depth analysis of recent LML advances. First, text mining analysis was performed to effectively understand the underlying LML themes in the target studies. Then, the novel definition and typology of LML delivery services were suggested. Finally, this paper proposed the next generation of LML research through advanced delivery technique-based LML services, environmentally sustainable LML systems, improvement of LML operations in real industries, effective management of uncertainties in LML, and LML delivery services for decentralized manufacturing services. We believe that this systematic literature review can serve as a useful tool for LML decision makers and stakeholders.

A Taxonomy of Food Supply Chain Problems from a Computational Intelligence Perspective

In the last few years, the Internet of Things, and other enabling technologies, have been progressively used for digitizing Food Supply Chains (FSC). These and other digitalization-enabling technologies are generating a massive amount of data with enormous potential to manage supply chains more efficiently and sustainably. Nevertheless, the intricate patterns and complexity embedded in large volumes of data present a challenge for systematic human expert analysis. In such a data-driven context, Computational Intelligence (CI) has achieved significant momentum to analyze, mine, and extract the underlying data information, or solve complex optimization problems, striking a balance between productive efficiency and sustainability of food supply systems. Although some recent studies have sorted the CI literature in this field, they are mainly oriented towards a single family of CI methods (a group of methods that share common characteristics) and review their application in specific FSC stages. As such, there is a gap in identifying and classifying FSC problems from a broader perspective, encompassing the various families of CI methods that can be applied in different stages (from production to retailing) and identifying the problems that arise in these stages from a CI perspective. This paper presents a new and comprehensive taxonomy of FSC problems (associated with agriculture, fish farming, and livestock) from a CI approach; that is, it defines FSC problems (from production to retail) and categorizes them based on how they can be modeled from a CI point of view. Furthermore, we review the CI approaches that are more commonly used in each stage of the FSC and in their corresponding categories of problems. We also introduce a set of guidelines to help FSC researchers and practitioners to decide on suitable families of methods when addressing any particular problems they might encounter. Finally, based on the proposed taxonomy, we identify and discuss challenges and research opportunities that the community should explore to enhance the contributions that CI can bring to the digitization of the FSC.

Hub-and-Spoke Logistics Network Considering Pricing and Co-Opetition

With the rapid development of the logistics market, the construction of an efficient “channel + hub + network” logistics system, that is, a hub-and-spoke logistics network, is of great importance to enterprises. In particular, how to reduce costs and increase efficiency in both the construction of network facilities and actual operations, and to formulate reasonable prices for the logistics service needs in the entire market are crucial strategies and decisions for enterprises. Under such a background, this article starts from the perspective of duopoly logistics enterprises that jointly build networks and allow the transfer of surplus capacity and carbon credits, and studies the hub-and-spoke logistics network design that also considers the relationship between service pricing and co-opetition. Considering the corporate profit and difficulty of implementation as a whole, the co-opetition is a better choice than the complete competition and perfect cooperation. In addition, the remaining capacity of the company, the transfer of carbon credits, the joint construction and sharing of hubs, and strategic cooperation in the area of corporate common pricing under the price framework agreement are conducive to the realization of an increase in corporate operating profits, a better market share and more favorable pricing.

Economic Development Based on a Mathematical Model: An Optimal Solution Method for the Fuel Supply of International Road Transport Activity

Due to globalization and increased market competition, forwarding companies must focus on the optimization of their international transport activities and on cost reduction. The minimization of the amount and cost of fuel results in increased competition and profitability of the companies as well as the reduction of environmental damage. Nowadays, these aspects are particularly important. This research aims to develop a new optimization method for road freight transport costs in order to reduce the fuel costs and determine optimal fueling stations and to calculate the optimal quantity of fuel to refill. The mathematical method developed in this research has two phases. In the first phase the optimal, most cost-effective fuel station is determined based on the potential fuel stations. The specific fuel prices differ per fuel station, and the stations are located at different distances from the main transport way. The method developed in this study supports drivers’ decision-making regarding whether to refuel at a farther but cheaper fuel station or at a nearer but more expensive fuel station based on the more economical choice. Thereafter, it is necessary to determine the optimal fuel volume, i.e., the exact volume required including a safe amount to cover stochastic incidents (e.g., road closures). This aspect of the optimization method supports drivers’ optimal decision-making regarding optimal fuel stations and how much fuel to obtain in order to reduce the fuel cost. Therefore, the application of this new method instead of the recently applied ad-hoc individual decision-making of the drivers results in significant fuel cost savings. A case study confirmed the efficiency of the proposed method.

Planning the Rational Freight Vehicle Fleet Utilization Considering the Season Temperature Factor

Food product transportation is one of the most problematic tasks considering the specific expectations in the context of the transport conditions. It seems to be a significant challenge for the freight carriers’ decision-makers. The proper organization and management of that process is the basis for the appropriate fulfilment of the needs of customers, related, among others, to the proper quality of delivered products (such as freshness, expiration date, etc.). The additional challenge in this context is the efficient delivery at the city area, taking into account typical city transportation problems, such as congestion, narrow ways, lack of the unloading areas, etc. The role of these tasks is analyzed in this paper, on the basis of the chosen parameters and technologies of the transportation process. The purpose of this paper is to study the rational freight fleet formation in the case of changing the parameters of material flow in time. It was found that with the other unchanged parameters of material flow, the change in ambient temperature affects the technological process of transportation, the type of vehicle for its movement and the structure of the vehicle fleet. Accordingly, the types of vehicles (tent or insulated) necessary for the movement of certain material flows, which require special conditions for their transportation, have been determined, in compliance with the temperature regime and periods of their use. The organization scenarios of the transport service of the studied distribution processes were proposed, taking into consideration the change in conditions for the transportation of material flow, purchase of insulated semitrailers or their rent. The proposed versions were calculated and evaluated under the given conditions, and based on the net present value, the best of the proposed options was found: the purchase of one insulated semi-trailer while hiring the remaining insufficient insulated vehicles.

Multimodal Transport in the Context of Sustainable Development of a City

Multimodal freight transport in cities is a complex, valid, and vitally important problem. It is more seldom underlined in scientific studies and included in cities’ strategies that devote more attention to passenger transport than freight transport. The increased utilization of multimodal transport matches current transport policy and at the same time, it is one of the most important challenges put before cities striving to achieve sustainable development. In this case, the paper embarks upon the problem of relations between multimodal transport development and the sustainable development of the cities. The objective of the paper is an analysis of the impact of the selected city of the Upper Silesian metropolis on the development of multimodal freight transport and an assessment of the impact of the development of multimodal transport on the sustainable development of the cities of the Upper Silesian metropolis. The authors developed three research questions in order to implement the adopted objective. The process of looking for the answer included four stages. Within the first and second stages, the literature studies and experts’ research allowed for identifying key factors of the multimodal transport development that a city may have an impact on. In the third stage, the research was two-fold and was based on a questionnaire and scenario analysis. Due to the individual character of each of the cities, scenarios were developed for Katowice, being the main economic center of Upper Silesian and Zagłębie Metropolis. As a result of the research, factors have been identified that must be included in a strategy of a city that strives for sustainable development. The last stage of the research focused on the initial concept of the multimodal transport development impact assessment on sustainable development of the cities. Conclusions developed at individual stages allowed for answering the research questions.

Asset tracking, condition visibility and sustainability using unmanned aerial systems in global logistics

The scale and scope of global logistics systems make real-time visibility of individual assets in global logistics systems difficult. Aggregating global logistics data to a manageable level where interruptions and disruptions can be anticipated or resolved is high on the wish list of global logistics managers and decision makers. Asset tracking and condition visibility in global supply chains is also difficult because few standards or metrics have been assessed in a supply chain, particularly when new technology is introduced, such as unmanned aerial systems in global supply chains. In this paper, we describe the integration of an unmanned aerial system in a global logistics system, and the metrics used to assess the integrated system. We highlight the importance of supply chain process, business impact, societal and environmental sustainability metrics, in addition to economic and supply chain performance metrics, in evaluating the integrated system.

Urban Freight Last Mile Logistics—Challenges and Opportunities to Improve Sustainability: A Literature Review

Last mile logistics (LML) is the least efficient and complex part of supply chain. The main objective of this study was to identify major challenges of urban freight LML and opportunities for intervention. For this, 42 peer-reviewed full papers published after 2010 and three additional references were used. The findings indicated that urban freight flow has a trend of steady growth. The main driving forces behind this steady growth are population growth, urbanization, densification, globalization, online and omni-channel (OC) retailing, and urban economic development. Using typology analysis, three main potential freight LML configurations were mapped and discussed. Freight LML configurations that involve light cargo vehicles and cargo bike-based delivery schemes could be more attractive freight LML models if the delivery failure is minimized. The LML challenges were categorized as technological, infrastructural, LML system and management, and logistic cost related challenges, and discussed broadly. Similarly, the potential opportunities were discussed from environmental, economic, and social sustainability aspects. Finally, this report has pinpointed future potential research agendas related to LML. The study could be a knowledge base useful for academicians and practitioners, logistics and technical service providers, policy makers, and customers.

Flexible Assignment of Loading Bays for Efficient Vehicle Routing in Urban Last Mile Delivery

Urban freight deliveries are often subject to many access restrictions which creates the need to establish a system of loading bays and to split the last mile delivery into driving and walking parts. A new model based on hard and soft clustering approach is developed to solve the loading bay assignment problem for efficient vehicle routing and walking in last mile delivery. The flexibility of the model is provided by the soft clustering approach based on different membership degrees of customers to loading bays. Especially for instances with large numbers of loading bays, soft clustering seems to give better results, it leads to higher flexibility of city logistics systems, minimal driving distances, and adequately short walking paths, which contribute to the goal of reaching sustainable urban freight deliveries.

An Examination of Last Mile Delivery Practices of Freight Carriers Servicing Business Receivers in Inner-City Areas

Freight carriers experience major challenges while operating in highly dense inner-city areas. Timely deliveries are crucial for the success of businesses and for the long-term economic growth of metropolitan areas. Previous freight studies have paid little attention to the characteristics of freight movements in a highly dense urban context. Accordingly, this study sought to quantify the operational practices for freight carriers that deliver light parcels to inner-city business receivers. Direct insights were collected using semistructured interviews and an online survey with freight carriers in Melbourne, Australia. The intent was to describe the delivery trips and vehicle types involved in this unique segment. An assessment of operational challenges to the efficiency of freight carriers is presented in the study. In general, freight deliveries to inner-city receivers are characterised by underutilised transport capacity along with a large number of delivery stops. The findings shed light on the challenges that couriers encounter in congested inner-city areas.

Postboxes Quantitative Optimization Model

Technological developments are having a significant impact on purchasing habits and consumer behavior, and threaten the traditional model of the delivery of goods by post. The replacement of traditional letter-post items with electronic forms of communication has led to declines in the volume of postal items. Therefore, the collection of postal items has become very inefficient. This paper proposes that the postal network segment needs to be reorganized by reducing the current number of installed postboxes. To this end, a mathematical model has been defined. Considering that postboxes are one of the most basic access points to the postal network, territorial accessibility must be taken into account. The proposed model, with minor modifications, can easily be applied to optimize other access points in transportation networks. For testing purposes, this paper presents the results of computational experiments based on real data. The final result consists of scenarios that present a decision support system for the redesign of postal networks.

Substantiating the Logistics Chain Structure While Servicing the Flow of Requests for Road Transport Deliveries

The selection of the delivery scheme is one of the most complicated problems and the results of its solution condition the sustainable development of the whole market of transportation services. Freight forwarders should consider numerous random parameters characterizing demand and technological processes to choose the proper structure of the logistics chain. The paper aims to propose a method for choosing the logistics chain structure, based on the analysis of the total expenses as a function from the demand parameters characterizing stochastic variables of the consignment weight, the delivery distance, and the time interval between the requests in the flow of queries for cargo delivery. Four basic logistics chain structures, widely used on road transport, are described to demonstrate the selection process. The areas of the most efficient use of the logistics chain structures can be defined for the flow of requests for cargo deliveries. The paper shows such areas on the example of goods delivery by automobile transport. Determining the areas of the most efficient use of the specific logistics chain structures contributes to the effective choice of correct delivery variants by freight forwarders.

The Role of Digital Connectivity in Supply Chain and Logistics Systems: A Proposed SIMPLE Framework

Industry 4.0 and its related-cutting edge technologies are generating unprecedented changes and bringing complex challenges in practically all types of business. In this context, new concepts such as digital connectivity, interconnection, and interoperability emerged as highly disruptive approaches for logistics systems and supply chain management (SCM). To shed more light on these complexities and see how companies organized in a SCM model can adopt, implement and operate in a digital connectivity model, this study proposes a framework, namely SIMPLE. To develop the framework, we employed a literature review approach, focusing on recent studies published in journals. After the literature analysis, six dimensions related to digital connectivity in supply chains and logistics emerged, namely Smart, Innovative, Measurable, Profitable, Lean, and Excellence (SIMPLE). This framework brings opportunities for future studies, while providing important insights into the dynamics of digital connectivity in logistics and supply chains. Therefore, these SIMPLE framework dimensions should enable the actors involved in organizations’ operations to interact adequately and harmoniously so as to maximize the value generated in the network.

Roles and Perspectives When Estimating Energy and Environmental Potentials of Urban Consolidation

Urban consolidation centers (UCCs) are presumed to provide more efficient goods distribution in cities and lead to decreased environmental impact and energy usage. There is, however, limited knowledge as to the actual performance of UCCs, and what roles and perspectives the involved actors have in the performance measurement. The overall aim of this paper is to investigate the roles and perspectives of involved actors when estimating and evaluating the performance of UCCs. The article is based on a study of one case that evaluates the performance of a UCC involving several actors. Interviews were triangulated with documents from the case. The results showed that actors have different roles in performance measurements and even if they share a mutual interest in conducting the measurements, they did not share opinions regarding factors such as system limits or performance indicators. The study provides a deeper understanding of the importance of inter-organizational interaction when conducting performance measurements. The study provides additional insights into the roles of the actors and their perspectives in logistics performance measurement that targets energy usage and environmental impact. These aspects are seldom addressed in less complex estimations or mathematical modelling estimations.

Framework of Last Mile Logistics Research: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Coincident with the rapid growth of omni-channel retailing, growing urbanization, changing consumer behavior, and increasing focus on sustainability, academic interest in the area of last mile logistics has significantly increased. The growth in academic publications has been tremendous, with three out of four articles appearing within the past five years. The influx of research spans multiple disciplines and various methodologies, underlining the complexity and fragmentation of last mile logistics research, which leads to a lack of unity in the understanding of the concept. We provide a systematic review and classification of the literature to provide a more coherent view of last mile logistics research. The review covers 155 peer-reviewed journal publications focusing on last mile logistics. Findings demonstrate that the literature embraces a diversity of aspects and facets that are classified into five themes: emerging trends and technologies, operational optimization, supply chain structures, performance measurement, and policy. Further, we propose a framework of last mile logistics literature that comprises five components and their interrelationships, namely, last mile logistics, last mile distribution, last mile fulfillment, last mile transport, and last mile delivery. The results provide a foundation for further development of this research area by proposing avenues for future research.

Combinational Scheduling Model Considering Multiple Vehicle Sizes

Urban public transport is an effective way to solve urban traffic problems and promote sustainable development of urban traffic. A scientific operation scheduling system has an important guiding significance for optimizing the configuration of urban public transport capacity resources, improving the level of operation organization and management, and providing for the sustainability of the transportation system. According to the inhomogeneous distribution of passenger flow along transit lines, this study develops a combinational scheduling model in which the enterprise supplies zonal service based on regular service. The objective function minimizes the sum of passenger travel cost and operation cost, and the simulated annealing algorithm is designed to solve the optimization model. This paper abstracts an ideal example by taking a real-world case of Bus Line 131 in Lanzhou, China. The numerical example is used to verify the validity of the model and algorithm. Results show that the combinational operation scheme can effectively satisfy passengers’ demand and reduce the total cost by 7.03% in comparison with the regular operation system. The optimal combinational system with the lowest total cost can increase the vehicle load factor and improve the utilization ratio.

Joint Inventory and Pricing Policy for an Online to Offline Closed-Loop Supply Chain Model with Random Defective Rate and Returnable Transport Items

Environmental deterioration is one of the current hot topics of the business world. To cope with the negative environmental impacts of corporate activities, researchers introduced the concept of closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) management and remanufacturing. This paper studies joint inventory and pricing decisions in a multi-echelon CLSC model that considers online to offline (O2O) business strategy. An imperfect production process is examined with a random defective rate that follows a probability distribution. The results show that the O2O channel increases the profit of the system. For the defective rate, three different distributions are considered and three examples are solved. The results of the three examples conclude that the highest profit is generated when the defective rate follows a uniform distribution. Furthermore, based on the salvage value of defective items, two cases were studied. Results and sensitivity analysis show that the increase in defective rate does not reduce total profit in every situation, as perceived by the existing literature. Sensitivity analysis and numerical examples are given to show robustness of the model and draw important managerial insights.

A Multi-Objective Programming Approach to Design Feeder Bus Route for High-Speed Rail Stations

The quality of route design can greatly affect the operational efficiency of feeder bus service for high-speed rail stations. A bi-objective optimization formulation is established to consider the trade-off between two conflicting optimization objectives, namely maximizing the travel demand that can be served and minimizing the feeder bus route length. The Pareto optimal solutions of the discrete mathematical formulation are generated by the exact ε-constraint method. We test the proposed approach with a numerical example on an actual size scale. The results indicate that the computational efficiency of the solution approach is encouraging, and a series of route design plans and location stop plans are generated simultaneously in a short time. A numerical example also shows that as the passengers’ maximum acceptable walking distance increases, more travel demand can be served when the route length does not change much. Benefits brought by increasing feeder bus route length are analyzed and the robustness of obtained solutions is verified. The comparison of our approach and an existing approach is also presented to demonstrate that our approach can generate better solutions.

How Does Licensing Remanufacturing Affect the Supply Chain Considering Customer Environmental Awareness?

As sustainability issues are receiving increasing attention in society, in recent years many manufacturers have been adopting remanufacturing via technology licensing. This paper uses a game theory approach to investigate this strategy of a manufacturer under a closed-loop supply chain consisting of one supplier, one manufacturer, and one third-party remanufacturer (TPR), with the consideration of customer environmental awareness. In particular, the supplier supplies the components to the manufacturer and the manufacturer adopts technology licensing remanufacturing via the TPR. We explicitly characterize the reactions between the supplier and the manufacturer as being in equilibrium after adopting the technology licensing. We find that only when remanufacturing is a potential threat to the supplier is the performance of the supply chain improved and the double marginalization effect effectively eliminated. Moreover, remanufacturing by technology licensing only increases the profit of the manufacturer, but decreases the profit of the supplier. Interestingly, contrary to traditional wisdom, the existence of remanufactured products does not reduce the quantity of new products. Furthermore, remanufacturing by technology licensing may not always improve the environment, but customers in the market have environmental awareness that facilitates remanufacturing.

Supply Contract Design with Asymmetric Corporate Social Responsibility Cost Information in Service Supply Chain

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become the focus of the company’s daily operations and strategic choices. At present, the supply risk events caused by the CSR violations of service providers in the service supply chain are frequent, which highlight the importance of formulating appropriate contracts to constrain the CSR level of providers. In the context of asymmetric CSR cost information, this paper analyzes the optimal contract parameters of integrators when providing screening contracts or pooling contracts and compares their impact on profits and the CSR level. The information asymmetry belongs to classic principal-agent problem, and we will use the revelation principle to design the contracts and solve this problem. The results that different contracts have different effects on the CSR level of different types of providers. A low-cost provider’s CSR level is the highest when a screening contract is provided, while a high-cost provider’s CSR level reaches the peak under a pooling contract. If pursuing profit maximization, the integrator should choose to provide a screening contract. When the integrator needs to ensure a higher average level of social responsibility, a pooling contract should be chosen. The findings also show that service cost is an important factor affecting the CSR level of the provider, and only when the providers’ service cost is low, will providers actively fulfill their social responsibility.

A Courier Service with Electric Bicycles in an Urban Area: The Case in Seoul

Various factors must be considered when running a courier service in an urban area, because the infrastructure of a city differs from those in suburban or countryside areas. Of note, population density is higher, and vehicles encounter greater restrictions. Moreover, air pollution from fossil fuel combustion is more severe. As tailpipe emissions are becoming costly to both corporations and the environment, researchers are increasingly exploring more appealing transportation options. Electric bicycles have become an important mode of transportation in some countries in the past decade. Electric bicycles and automobiles have their respective merits and demerits when used to provide courier services. E-bikes in particular can ply their trade in densely packed areas that are off-limits to cars and trucks. This paper focuses on (1) developing a truck–bike mixture model to reduce operating costs for an existing truck-only service by replacing some of the trucks with bicycles, and (2) exploring the resulting effects in terms of reducing overall carbon emissions. Data from one of the major courier companies in South Korea were utilized. The problem was tackled as a heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem using simulated annealing because the actual size of the problem cannot be solved directly with a mathematical approach. The most effective fleet mix was found for the company’s case. Effects on operating costs and reduced emissions were analyzed for 15 different scenarios with varying demands and off-limits areas. Computational results revealed that the new model is viable from economic and sustainability standpoints. They indicated that costs decrease to varying degrees in all scenarios, and that carbon emissions also decrease by around 10% regardless of the selected scenario.

Optimization of Municipal Waste Collection Routing: Impact of Industry 4.0 Technologies on Environmental Awareness and Sustainability

The accelerated movement of people towards cities led to the fact that the world’s urban population is now growing by 60-million persons per year. The increased number of cities’ population has a significant impact on the produced volume of household waste, which must be collected and recycled in time. The collection of household waste, especially in downtown areas, has a wide range of challenges; the collection system must be reliable, flexible, cost efficient, and green. Within the frame of this paper, the authors describe the application possibilities of Industry 4.0 technologies in waste collection solutions and the optimization potential in their processes. After a systematic literature review, this paper introduces the waste collection process of downtowns as a cyber-physical system. A mathematical model of this waste collection process is described, which incorporates routing, assignment, and scheduling problems. The objectives of the model are the followings: (1) optimal assignment of waste sources to garbage trucks; (2) scheduling of the waste collection through routing of each garbage truck to minimize the total operation cost, increase reliability while comprehensive environmental indicators that have great impact on public health are to be taken into consideration. Next, a binary bat algorithm is described, whose performance is validated with different benchmark functions. The scenario analysis validates the model and then evaluates its performance to increase the cost-efficiency and warrant environmental awareness of waste collection process.

Grocery Delivery or Customer Pickup—Influences on Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions in Munich

The number of supermarkets offering grocery delivery has increased in recent years. Many studies conclude that CO2 emission savings result from this concept. Since the delivery of groceries also consumes energy and produces emissions, break-even points can be calculated, where the delivery is environmentally beneficial compared to customer pickup. In this paper, influences of differing vehicle use on break-even points for savings of energy and CO2 emissions are analyzed for the case of Haidhausen Süd, a district in Munich, Germany. Internal combustion engine and electric vehicles are investigated to depict current as well as future trends. After an introduction to the methodology used, the potential to save energy and CO2 emissions related to the delivery of groceries in the chosen district of Munich are evaluated. Subsequently, influences on the break-even points are presented and discussed. As the results show, a delivery of groceries leads to energy and carbon dioxide savings in a wide range of private vehicle use for grocery shopping trips. Nevertheless, if the complete customer vehicle fleet is electrified, the use of delivery vehicles with an internal combustion engine could cause an additional environmental impact at the current modal split for shopping trips in Germany.

Value generation of remanufactured products: multi-case study of third-party companies

The importance of reverse logistics has increased owing to environmental factors and recent legislations. In this context, the market for remanufactured goods has become attractive. Manufacturers, retailers, and third-party companies have improved return programs and operations that add value to the return chain for electronic appliances, rather than treating it as a secondary process. The objective of this study is to identify the variables related to value generation in the reverse logistics of electronic products from the perspective of third-party companies. Reverse logistics of electronic products depends much on the context and local regulations; in addition, the fact that there are few studies on developing countries points to an important gap in extant research. This study presents the influence of quality and warranties, processing time, and partnerships between third-party companies, manufacturers, and retailers on the value generation from remanufactured products. These variables are related to optimal results and optimistic expectations for growth among third-party companies. These internal factors, together with an analysis of external factors and product portfolios, complement the scenario description for the cases studied. The main contribution of this study is to highlight the major factors, which are presented in the framework. The lessons learned can be used in other contexts involving third-party companies.

Investigating the Impact Factors of the Logistics Service Supply Chain for Sustainable Performance: Focused on Integrators

The overall scale of China’s logistics industry is growing rapidly, and the environment and conditions for its development are constantly improving, which lays a solid foundation for further accelerating the development of the logistics industry. However, logistics services are characterized by subordination, immediacy, demand volatility, and substitutability. Low-level integrated management of logistics services seriously hinders the development of the logistics service supply chain (LSSC) for sustainable performance. Many studies have been limited to the performance evaluation of LSSCs, and the factors affecting LSSC performance have generally been ignored. This study focuses on integrated LSSCs by using an integrator’s opportunistic behavior as the entry point of research and investigates the factors that affect the sustainability of LSSC performance. On the basis of relevant theories, a model for a hypothesis is constructed and eight hypotheses are subsequently proposed. Moreover, 271 survey responses from functional logistics service providers (research object) are utilized to develop a structural equation model for empirical research. Findings show that integrators with opportunistic behavior inhibit the information-sharing behavior of supply chain members. Consequently, the integration capability and agility of LSSCs are reduced, which affects the overall performance of LSSCs. The findings of this study can provide management insights into the behaviors of supply chain members and governments.

A Stakeholder-Based Evaluation of the Most Suitable and Sustainable Delivery Fleet for Freight Consolidation Policies in the Inner-City Area

Freight carriers, receivers and citizens in the inner-city area suffer the most from issues impacting last mile delivery due to exacerbated traffic congestion, limited parking and unsustainable delivery vehicles. Freight consolidation policies offer a sustainable solution to address these problems. The freight vehicles used in the consolidated deliveries could play a significant role in the sustainability and success of these policies. This paper applies a multi-stakeholder decision support approach to evaluate the suitability and potential of various delivery fleet configurations in addressing the perspectives and requirements of all stakeholders involved in last mile delivery to perform the consolidated delivery in the inner-city area. The Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA) framework was utilised to assess and rank various delivery configurations involving a combination of eco-friendly delivery vans, trucks and cargobikes based on the objectives of the stakeholders. The weight allocation of the criteria was determined through the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (F-AHP) method using responses collected from key actors representing all stakeholder groups in Melbourne, Australia. The multi-stakeholder analysis, which was performed using the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) method, suggested that the consolidated delivery should be performed using a combination of eco-friendly delivery vans and cargobikes to incorporate the concerns of the societal stakeholders and operational requirements of the business stakeholders. The mono-actor analysis revealed the heterogeneity of the stakeholders’ preferences and clashing views regarding the optimal delivery fleet. This highlights the importance of incorporating a multi-stakeholder perspective in the planning and selection of suitable urban freight policies. Accordingly, a suitable implementation plan for the consolidated delivery fleet was proposed to reflect the perspectives and requirements of these stakeholders.

The Problem of Sustainable Intermodal Transportation: A Case Study of an International Logistics Company, Turkey

Environmental and social concerns force logistics firms to evaluate various risk factors for intermodal transportation systems. In this context, this paper takes into account economic, social, and ecological risk factors that have attracted considerable attention toward sustainable transportation. In this paper, the allocation of export containers to transportation modes, by incorporating social and ecological risks with a main focus on the minimization of transportation costs, was examined. A mixed-integer-programming-based mathematical model was proposed to decide how the containers can be allocated to different transportation modes. In addition, a fuzzy-based approach was performed to determine the social and ecological risk weights of the transportation modes within the decision process. Each mode was evaluated with social risks (e.g., human accidents and deaths) and ecological risks (e.g., emission values and noise pollution) by decision makers via the assignment of numerical scores. The obtained results show that optimal transportation modes more economical and environmentally friendly were provided by the proposed methods.

Decision and Coordination in a Dual-Channel Three-Layered Green Supply Chain

This paper investigated, for the first time, the game and coordination of a dual-channel, three-layered, green fresh produce supply chain, with regard to its economic, social, and environmental performance. Considering that the market demand is dual-channel priced and sensitive to the degree of greenness and the freshness-level, four game models, under different scenarios have been established. These included a centralized scenario, a decentralized scenario, and two contractual scenarios. The equilibrium solutions under the four scenarios were characterized. From the perspective of a sustainable development, the economic, social, and environmental performance of the supply chain was analyzed. To enhance the supply chain performance, two contract mechanisms were designed and the conditions for a multi-win outcome were obtained. Accordingly, many propositions and management implications were provided. The results showed that, (1) compared to the centralized supply chain case, the performance of the decentralized supply chain case is inferior; (2) in addition to increasing the concentration of the supply chain decisions, the two contracts proposed can effectively coordinate the green supply chain and improve its sustainable performance; and (3) the performance of the supply chain is positively driven by the consumers’ sensitivity to greenness degree and the freshness level of fresh produce. This paper fills a research gap and helps the participants of the channel recognize the operational decision principle of a complex green supply chain, in order to achieve a higher and a long-term sustainable-development performance.

Minimization of Logistics Cost and Carbon Emissions Based on Quantum Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper aims to simultaneously minimize logistics costs and carbon emissions. For this purpose, a mathematical model for a three-echelon supply chain network is created considering the relevant constraints such as capacity, production cost, transport cost, carbon emissions, and time window, which will be solved by the proposed quantum-particle swarm optimization algorithm. The three-echelon supply chain, consisting of suppliers, distribution centers, and retailers, is established based on the number and location of suppliers, the transport method from suppliers to distribution centers, and the quantity of products to be transported from suppliers to distribution centers and from these centers to retailers. Then, a quantum-particle swarm optimization is described as its performance is validated with different benchmark functions. The scenario analysis validates the model and evaluates its performance to balance the economic benefit and environmental effect.

Sizing of the Drone Delivery Fleet Considering Energy Autonomy

One of the most innovative solutions treated in the literature in order to reduce the environmental impact of urban parcel delivery logistics is the use of drones for delivery on the last kilometer. Consequently, nowadays, the primary challenge is essentially related to the drones’ fleet sizing according to its means of support for the urban delivery of parcels. In this paper, we will discuss the issue of dimensioning from a forecast of deliveries of an urban perimeter, the size of the fleet, the stock of battery to dispose of and the strategy of battery charging. We will present an analytical model expressing the proposed problem of the optimal drones’ delivery mission taking into account the issues of autonomy and energy consumption related to the drone’s technical specification. According to the developed analytical model, two optimization policies will be proposed. The first policy consists of planning missions under reducing distance. The second policy tries to make a compromise between the distance and the number of drones. A case study will be presented in order to compare the two policies based on the overall cost of a plan. The main objective of the study is to create a decision-making tool for the design of a drone fleet in the case of forecast deliveries over a time horizon under operational constraints.

Integrated Energy Transaction Mechanisms Based on Blockchain Technology

With the rapid development of distributed renewable energy (DRE), demand response (DR) programs, and the proposal of the energy internet, the current centralized trading of the electricity market model is unable to meet the trading needs of distributed energy. As a decentralized and distributed accounting mode, blockchain technology fits the requirements of distributed energy to participate in the energy market. Corresponding to the transaction principle, a blockchain-based integrated energy transaction mechanism is proposed, which divides the trading process into two stages: the call auction stage and the continues auction stage. The transactions among the electricity and heat market participants were used as examples to explain the details of the trading process. Finally, the smart contracts of the transactions were designed and deployed on the Ethereum private blockchain site to demonstrate the validity of the proposed transaction scheme.

Sustainable Distribution Organization Based on the Supply–Demand Coordination in Large Chinese Cities

In large Chinese cities, inefficient logistics organization, a rapid increase in freight demand, and the spreading of city logistics space have jointly contributed to the urban problems related to goods movement, such as spatial conflicts, traffic congestion, and air pollution. To address these problems and improve urban sustainability, we proposed a new spatial organization model of supply–demand coordination. We used the data from the Third China Economic Census and online point-of-interest (POI) for China’s four direct-controlled municipalities and 13 sub-provincial cities. We found that: (1) the freight supply and demand in China’s large cities are both spatially decentralized and clustered. However, there is a significant spatial mismatch between freight supply and demand in most of the studied cities. (2) The 17 studied cities can be divided into three types—highly unbalanced, unbalanced, and balanced—in light of the spatial mismatch between freight supply and demand. (3) The capacities of road surface and logistics nodes spatially differ. The supply capacity of the road systems in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou can only accommodate 18.4%, 35.5%, and 32.2% of the demand, respectively, while the supply capacity of the logistics nodes is more than twice that of the actual demand in these cities. Based on the findings, this paper proposed a differentiated method of demand management in different areas of the cities. To achieve the goals of low-carbon and sustainable development in logistics distribution, policy makers may consider planning urban freight activities along metro lines and intercity rail lines. Thus, this paper will provide a new perspective for understanding the urban freight distribution and management in large Chinese cities.