INFORMATION FLOWS IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Are Road Transport Companies Involved with Supply Chain Planning Processes?
Jarkko Rantala
Senior Researcher, D. Sc. (Tech.), Department of Business Information Management and Logistics
Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 541, 33101 Tampere, Finland
Keywords: Supply chain management, Transportation, Information management, Partnership.
Abstract: Businesses are increasingly facing global competition and therefore they meet growing demand for cost
efficiency and customer responsiveness. Time-based competition is more a precondition than a source of
competitive advantage at present business environment. At the same time companies are concentrating on
their core business and outsourcing supporting operations to network partners. Logistics and transports are
typical example of outsourced functions. Information management is one key element for effective and
reliable supply network operations. This research clarified the role of road transport companies in the supply
chains and identified discontinuations of information management and partnership operations from the view
point of transport companies.
1 INTRODUCTION
Globalization and integration of markets have risen
to a significant role in today’s logistic business
environment. Businesses are operating in a global
marketplace and the demand for cost efficiency and
customer responsiveness has increased. Therefore,
global location of production and distribution
facilities and time-based competition are the major
driving forces in today’s business environment. At
the same time customers increasingly demand for
wide variety of products with minimal lead-time.
(Bhatnagar and Visswanathan, 2000), (Childerhouse
et al., 2002) Also unpredictability of material
demand is constantly increasing and therefore sets
pressures for decreasing logistics lead-time even
further. Therefore supply chain management has
become an essential source of competitiveness and
its significance has continuously increased (Singh,
2004).
In addition to many opportunities, globalization
also brings along various demands. E.g. the current
global economy demands the highest quality
products at the least cost regardless of where the
product is manufactured. Operating in a global
market may also increase the uncertainty in the
company’s operations, which may in turn lead to
considerably increased inventories and longer lead-
times through global supply chains. (Bhatnagar and
Viswanathan, 2000), (Bhutta et al., 2003) When
globalization increases and becomes more important
in the business environment, companies will take a
more global view of their operations and the
importance of distribution and logistics functions
will increase. Efficient logistics performance is
recognised as an important source of competitive
advantage and a crucial strategic imperative for the
success of companies (Bowersox, 1990), (Rantala,
2006). In addition, competition will be increasingly
between sets of networks based on deep partnership
rather than individual firms or supply chains. This is
often represented as one major trend in today’s
logistics, but interesting question is, whether road
transport companies as part of the network are
treated and operating as genuine partners in supply
chain management.
Outsourcing is one major trend in today’s
business environment and logistic operations belong
typically to the outsourced operations. The reason
for outsourcing is mainly to achieve competitive
advantage for the core business of companies. The
extent of outsourcing has been gradually increased
to larger entities and outsourcing has become a more
strategic factor in companies (Brewer et al., 2001).
One obvious development trend in the business
environment seems to be an attempt to keep
inventories in motion in order to avoid capital
investments in product inventories and a tendency to
559
Rantala J.
INFORMATION FLOWS IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT - Are Road Transport Companies Involved with Supply Chain Planning Processes?.
DOI: 10.5220/0001818505590562
In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WEBIST 2009), page
ISBN: 978-989-8111-81-4
Copyright
c
2009 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
push inventories onto other partners in the supply
chain. On the other hand this trend is due to a lead-
time decrease in the whole supply chain. A key point
in supply chain management is that the entire
process must be viewed as one system, but still the
performance of each member of the supply chain
affects the overall performance of the supply chain.
(Christopher, 1998), (Bhatnagar and Viswanathan,
2000)
All the perspectives described above emphasise
the significance of supply chain management for
business operations, dynamic nature of logistics and
imperative of partnership relationships through
whole supply network. There are certain differences
between business areas and all the operations does
not have strategic role for other business partners,
but in general the transportation companies have a
critical role in success of supply chain operations
and collaboration is a basic element in supply chain
management.
The purpose of this study was to identify the role
of transportation companies in supply chain
management and to clarify the relationship between
supply chain planning and management processes
and road transports. Main research questions were:
How are road transport companies involved
with supply chain planning processes?
What is the role of road transport
companies in supply networks?
Are road transport companies strategic
partners for trade and industry?
Hertz and Alfredsson (2003) emphasised
creating networks and acting in networks as primary
approach in outsourcing logistics activities. By using
3PL (third party logistics) providers’ services,
companies can be both directly and indirectly related
to other firms and they develop thorough
relationships with other companies. These
relationships exist not only between customers but
also with suppliers, partners and customers of
companies’ own customers. Trust between
companies is especially important when network
development involves economic, technological and
knowledge exchange. This also describes well the
nature of networking and partnership.
Collaboration is closely related to partnership
and the presented research questions. There are
various elements of successful collaboration, which
are not examined in detail in this paper. As the road
transport companies may be in various positions in
supply chain networks, the elements of collaboration
may be different and the significance of elements
may also vary. Road transport companies may carry
out single assignments or they may be involved as a
strategic partner in supply chain planning and
operations taking complete responsibility of bigger
entities in supply chain. The different roles are taken
into account in this research.
One basic element in this research was the fact,
that in order to meet the increasing demands set by
trade and industrial companies, transport service
providers will have to broaden their service supply.
These requirements necessitate networking with
other service providers. The networks should be
capable to perform both planning and management
of logistic processes according to agreed needs of
transport customers and also to provide physical
transports and inventories reliably and in time.
Offering enough capacity to take responsibility for
larger entities of the logistic chain requires at least
bigger company size or a network of transport
companies. (Rantala, 2006) Interesting approach
from this point of view is to clarify the actual role of
road transport companies in this kind of strategic
partnership cooperation.
The research work can be divided into two parts.
Theoretical background is based on research process
in 2002–2006 leading to a doctoral thesis focused on
heavy industry and its transportation systems in
Finland (Rantala, 2006). Empirical part is based on
research project conducted in 2007, where the focus
was to examine the logistic system-level factors
affecting the systems of road transportation, traffic
safety and the attractiveness and development of the
road transportation industry. The goal was to find
system-level development targets in order to
enhance the operation models in the industry. This
research project focused on three areas of
transportation in Finland: consumer goods, forest
industry and food industry (Salanne and Rantala,
2007).
The theoretical part of research work is based on
both literature survey and material from interviews
with experts carried out in 2002–2005. These
interviews consist in total 99 interviews with 120
representatives in Finland and abroad. The empirical
examination is based on 23 interviews with
representatives of Finnish trade, industry and
transportation companies. These empirical results
were presented and developed further at a workshop,
where 30 representatives of interest group of road
transportation industry were participating in
development work.
WEBIST 2009 - 5th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies
560
2 FINDINGS
Company size is very small in Finnish road haulage
industry, on average only 3.4 trucks per company.
Therefore road transport supply is quite dispersed in
Finland and usually transport companies are
specialised in certain business area. Capability to
serve wide variety of customers and transportation
or logistic needs is limited. Therefore it is necessary
for Finnish road haulage industry to increase
company size by networking or organic growth in
order to provide more sophisticated logistic services
to satisfy the increasing demands of trade and
industry. International road transport systems are
already mainly based on networking with
multinational logistic corporations and their service
supply. In general, the small average company size
seems to be a reason for road transport companies
not achieving a strategic partnership position
although their role often constitutes critical phases in
supply chain operations.
Main finding of the study is that the supply chain
includes enough information for the effective use of
transport capacity and transport planning, but
transport companies are usually not involved in
these information flows. Lack of information is not
due to technical restrictions. From information
management perspective the transportation
companies appear not to be considered as genuine
strategic partners regardless of their important
position in the supply network. Thus the basic
feature of true partnership does not realize in this
part of supply chain. The absence of true partnership
is rather unexpected, because physical
transportations constitute critical phases in supply
chain operations. Figure 1 describes the connection
of supply chain management and transportation
companies.
There are also exceptions in the road transport
related information management flows. For
example, transport flows of raw wood are well
planned and accurately controlled, utilising
effectively modern ICT technologies and navigation
systems. Possible deviations are also reported real-
time in both directions.
3 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE
RESEARCH
Better information system compatibility would be an
important development target for the communication
systems between transportation company and
transport customer. This would enhance deviation
management in the supply chain and enable
proactive planning of resource allocation in transport
companies. Deviations usually reflect on the next
phases of the supply chain depending on the type of
transportation.
Information flows of
possible deviations
(usually unworkable)
Not in same planning system with group
level
Temporary
subcontracting due to volume
variation
Logistic / transportation companies
(group level)
Networking partners in the
transportation system
Same planning system and
resource optimisation
Order by phone – information flows of supply chain is not usually
available for transportation companies, demands manual data input to
the operational planning system of logistic/transport company
Information flows – real-time demand information from EPOS systems
Material and information flows
Supply
network
Industry
Central
corporation
Terminal Shop
Figure 1: Information flows as an example in grocery supply chain from transport company point of view.
INFORMATION FLOWS IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT - Are Road Transport Companies Involved with Supply
Chain Planning Processes?
561
Planning of resource allocation is increasingly
significant for road transport companies due to
tightened EU regulations related to drivers’ work
and rest time legislation, increasing number of
product-specific special requirements and increasing
control by digital systems. Therefore transportation
chains and single operations must be based on
detailed plans, follow-up and information exchange.
Proactive planning is essential also from
environmental and economical perspectives.
Continuously rising fuel costs forms increasingly
significant cost item, which presuppose effective
resource planning and utilisation. Transportation
industry is a significant source of emissions, too.
Climate change discussion emphasise the
clarification of carbon footprint for supply chain
operations and the proactive planning of transport
operations in order to reduce fuel consumption and
emissions.
Results indicate that road transport companies
are usually not in a genuine partnership position in
supply chain operations. There are a plenty of other
features related to partnership relationship, which
are not discussed here in detail. For example,
cooperation in business planning toward common
target, shared interest in profitability of cooperation,
and reliable and open discussion connection between
supply chain partners are fundamental collaboration
forms that occur relatively seldom in the supply
chain management between industrial or trade
partners and road transport industry in Finland.
Purpose of the study was to examine the logistic
system level factors that affect the operation of road
transports. Attractiveness, competitiveness and
development of road transport industry have been as
a main interest. The main purpose has been to
examine the partnership relationships related to road
transports. Results indicate that there are many
requirements for reorganising the transport industry
in Finland in order to provide wide variety of high
quality logistic services. Changes anticipate a
development towards a genuine partnership position
with trade and industry. A further study of basic
conditions of genuine partnership operations
between road transport companies and its customers
would be needed to define, what kind of elements
are essential, how information exchange and
management should be solved and how the goals for
cooperation could be set. This approach would
provide deeper analysis of the role of road transport
companies in the supply chain management and the
development process towards a genuine partnership
role.
This research work will continue with next phase
studying the future development of road transport
industry specialising in operation models and
availability and qualifications of work force. This
research phase has started in March 2008 and will be
completed at the beginning of 2009.
REFERENCES
Bhatnagar, R., Viswanathan, S. (2000), “Re-engineering
global supply chains – Alliances between
manufacturing firms and global service providers”,
International Journal of Physical Distribution &
Logistics Management, Vol. 30 No. 1, 2000, pp. 13-
34.
Bhutta, K.S., Huq, F., Frazier, G., Mohamed, Z. (2003),
“An integrated location, production, distribution and
investment model for a multinational corporation”,
International Journal of Production Economies 86
(2003), pp. 201-216.
Bowersox, D.J. (1990), “The strategic benefits of logistics
alliances”, Harvard Business Review, July-August
1990, pp.36-45.
Brewer, A.M., Button, K.J., Hensher, D.A. (2001),
“Handbook of Logistics and Supply-chain
Management”, Elsevier Science Ltd., Oxford.
Childerhouse, P., Aitken, J., Towill, D.R. (2002),
“Analysis and design of focused demand chains”,
Journal of Operations Management 20 (2002), pp.
129-140.
Christopher, M. (1998), “Logistics and Supply Chain
Management – Strategies for Reducing Cost and
Improving Service”, Financial Times Professional
Ltd., Essex.
Harrison, A., van Hoek, R. (2005), “Logistics
Management and Strategy”, Prentice Hall, 2
nd
Edition.
Hertz, S., Alfredsson, M. (2003), “Strategic development
of third party logistics providers”, Industrial
Marketing Management 32 (2003), pp. 139-149.
Rantala, J. (2006), “Operations Model of Future Transport
in Basic Manufacturing Industry”, Thesis for the
degree of Doctor of Technology, Tampere University
of Technology, Publication 598, Tampere.
Salanne, I., Rantala, J. (2007), “Logistic system, traffic
safety and development of transport industry – The
effects of logistic system to operation models of road
transportations, road safety and attractiveness and
development of road transport industry” (In Finnish),
Reports of Vehicle Administration AKE, Nr. 14/2007,
Helsinki.
Singh, M. (2004), “A Review of the Leading Opinions on
the Future of Supply Chains”, Supply Chain 2020
Project Working Paper, December 06, 2004, MIT –
CTL.
WEBIST 2009 - 5th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies
562