Logistics

The article first describes characteristics of major infrastructure projects. Second, it documents a much neglected topic in economics: that ex ante estimates of costs and benefits are often very different from actual ex post costs and benefits. For large infrastructure projects the consequences are cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and the systematic underestimation of risks. Third, implications for cost–benefit analysis are described, including that such analysis is not to be trusted for major infrastructure projects. Fourth, the article uncovers the causes of this state of affairs in terms of perverse incentives that encourage promoters to underestimate costs and overestimate benefits in the business cases for their projects. But the projects that are made to look best on paper are the projects that amass the highest cost overruns and benefit shortfalls in reality. The article depicts this situation as ‘survival of the unfittest’. Fifth, the article sets out to explain how the problem may be solved, with a view to arriving at more efficient and more democratic projects, and avoiding the scandals that often accompany major infrastructure investments. Finally, the article identifies current trends in major infrastructure development. It is argued that a rapid increase in stimulus spending, combined with more investments in emerging economies, combined with more spending on information technology is catapulting infrastructure investment from the frying pan into the fire.

""introduces a collection of essays and art works on containers and containment by Paul Edwards, Benjamin Steininger, Georg Uhlemann, Walter Seitter, Armin Monsorno, Monika Dommann, Jörg Potthast, Lieven de Cauter, Adi Hoesle, Yannick Barthe, Judith Kröll/Michael Guggenheim/Bernd Kräftner, Insa Härtel/Olaf Knellessen

For a leaflet on TUMULT see

http://www.digitalakrobaten.de/pdf/Tumult-Flugblatt.pdf""

In the paper the authors presented correlation between city logistics and quality of life as an assumption for referential model. The paper is divided into three main parts. The first part presents a theoretical discussion about the relation between city logistics and quality of life. The second part presents assumptions for referential model of city logistics. In the last section of the paper auth ors describe selected results of survey research conducted among residents of medium sized city in Poland. The paper presents results of the second step of the research project "Reference Model of City Logistics versus Quality of Life of Citizens" financed from funds for science in the years 2010-2013.

A few months ago, FICCI estimated the logistics sector in India to reach $200 billion by 2020. Similarly, the Ministry of Road Transport, Government of India, had said that India's logistics sector is likely to cross the $200 billion mark by 2020. The underlying assumption was that this sector will grow by 10-12 percent over the next few years and the rupee will remain stable. Will these projections still hold true given the declining rupee is a big question mark....

Despite the proliferation of RFID systems and applications, there is still no easy way to develop, integrate and deploy non-trivial RFID solutions. Indeed, the latter comprise various middleware modules (e.g., data collection and filtering, generation of business events, integration with enterprise applications), which must be deployed and configured independently. In this paper we introduce APDL (AspireRFID Process Description Language), an XML based specification for describing and configuring RFID solutions. Using APDL one can minimize the steps and effort required to integrate and configure an RFID solution, since it unifies all the configuration parameters and steps comprising an RFID deployment. APDL supports several configuration parameters defined in the scope of the EPCglobal architecture and related standards. However, it extends beyond the EPCglobal architecture, to a wider class of RFID solutions. Furthermore, APDL is amendable by visual tools, which obviates the need to carry out low-level programming tasks in order to deploy an RFID solution. These tools are also presented and evaluated in the paper.

Supply Chain Strategies: Customer Driven and Customer Focused highlights the main challenges facing organizations wanting to select, design and implement successful supply chain strategies in an increasingly global and competitive environment. The text features discussion questions at the end of each chapter to promote learning, and numerous industry examples to ilustrate key concepts within chapters. Each chapter discusses the issues in relation to previous literature, contemporary practices and the lesson to be learned from different industries where successful management of supply chains has improved organizational and industry level profitability. The text includes a number of industry examples, thereby giving a wide-ranging approach to the topic.

"Purpose – This article develops a theoretical framework to investigate the interaction and coordination of decision-making processes in a supply chain with multiple and inter-dependent suppliers and customers.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents three longitudinal case studies on the decision coordination processes between a European toy supplier and three retailers.
Findings – The case studies found different mental models, decision-making behaviours, coordination behaviours and ordering behaviours even though the toy supplier and the three retailers observed quite the same material flow behaviours. The study found explanations for these diverse behaviours by analysing the mental models and decision-making behaviours of each involved party.
Originality/value – The findings explain the conditions which lead to undesirable mental models and decision-making behaviours which affect the coordination of decisions among supply chain members."

"Purpose – The purpose of this article is to propose a common framework for the empirical analysis of supply chain performance measurement systems used in different supply chain contexts.

Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper, which includes an extensive literature review and an illustrative case study. The content, context, process framework is applied to structure the body of knowledge and the case study.

Findings – Supply chain performance measurement is a context-dependent process, tailored to specific supply chain requirements. To understand how a performance measurement system in a supply chain has developed and is used there is a need to capture its context, process and content.

Research limitations/implications – The framework is illustrated by a single case study. Further empirical research is required to fully appreciate the breadth of application of this framework.

Practical implications – The proposed framework can help to develop performance measurement systems that are suitable for certain organisational and supply chain contexts in which a company operates, as well as to compare different systems used across different supply chains.

Originality/value – The paper demonstrates an approach for analysing existing supply chain performance measurement systems that can be applied across different supply chains and sectors. This will create an opportunity to use a consistent data collection process across a variety of supply chain situations and thus generate data for further theory development."

"Witnesses:

William Solis, Director Of Defense Capabilities And Management, Government Accountability Office (GAO)
Greg Starr, Deputy Assistant Secretary Of State James Kundar, Assistant Administrator For The Near East And Africa, U.S. Agency For International Development (USAID)
Chris Taylor, Vice President, Blackwater USA
Major General Robert Rosenkranz (Ret.), President Of International Technical Service, Dyncorp International
Ignacio Balderas, Former CEO And Current Board Of Directors Member, Triple Canopy
Doug Brooks, President, International Peace Operations Association (IPOA)
Alan Chvotkin, Senior Vice President And Counsel, Professional Services Council (PSC)
"