An empirical investigation of German freight villages
2012
scientific article
english
- freight villages
- supply chain interfaces
- synergies
- logistical performance
EN This paper presents empirical results on the functional performance of freight villages as supply chain interfaces. Moreover, it provides an overview of the current state of research on how freight villages contribute to an enhancement of supply chain performance. Databank research was conducted to review internationally published literature and existing research was evaluated based on relevant international contributions. Furthermore, a questionnaire was constructed to carry out an explorative study of freight villages in Germany. The functional performance of the investigated freight villages showed that there is a strong need to attach greater importance to the fulfilment of functions targeting on the streamlining of logistical processes within supply chains and the integration of value-adding services at supply chain interfaces. Results from this study provide insight into the potential performance of freight villages as supply chain interfaces. Therefore it is necessary to put intelligent multimodal transport chains into practice and to provide powerful logistical and value-adding services to achieve greater flexibility of adjustment to changing demand and a higher delivery service level. This paper contributes to the state of research by identifying a gap between the functional performance postulated in literature and the practical performance of freight villages. Moreover, it provides implications for closing this gap to implement high-performing interfaces within the supply chain.
399 - 410
public