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The development of a port strategy describing how the competitiveness of the port of Rotterdam for the case of inter-port competition between the major container ports in the Hamburg-Le Havre Range can sustainably be improved.

As a result of the shift in focus from outbound logistics, which includes the flows to the customers, to inbound logistics, an inbound logistics decision support model is developed in this research report. This model offers the user the possibility to discover the potentials that are resting in optimizing inbound logistics. The design of this model is based on the next design statement: "Develop a model to assess and quantify the effect of inbound logistic concepts on costs".

Logistics has become a field of growing interest for public policy making over recent decades. Logistics has a great impact on society. Due to these societal impacts there is a need for a more explicit intervention by governmental policies. This development demonstrates that the growing importance of transition and innovation in logistic concepts is shifting away from the traditional boundaries of these concepts. Logistics concepts nowadays have to serve multiple values (social, economic, environmental) related to the multiple interests of an increasing number of stakeholders. This introduces a challenge for the methodologies/analytical approaches, used to support multiple actor decision-making on new logistics concepts. This study is triggered by the observation that analytical approaches for design and evaluation do not sufficiently match the requirements of societal involvement in logistics. Our research has provided evidence that the involvement of public actors in logistics concepts has a serious influence on the development of new logistics concepts. In theory we found that analytical approaches for design and evaluation do not sufficiently match the requirements of societal involvement of public actors in logistics. Also in practice this lack of methodological innovation frequently results in frictions between policy makers working at different policy levels and the operating field of logistics companies. Based on our case research we have been able to develop an approach to support multiple actor decision making on new logistics concepts. The approach enables the stakeholders involved to make a choice in favour of a final logistics concept that is better tuned to perceptions and expectations of different stakeholders, is well understood and consequently can rely on sufficient support for successful implementation.

Master thesis project on the application of a systems approach to improve organizational performance. The demand planning process at a pharmaceutical company is analyzed to identify the root causes for the low performance levels at their local sales organizations. These root causes are translated into a redesign of the demand planning system to achieve better results.

Many large airport face problems of congestion in the terminal. Several studies have identified the check-in process as the bottleneck process. However, proposed solutions in literature are limited to changes inside the terminal. In this research, a wider supply chain perspective is applied to the passenger and baggage flows of airports. An off-airport baggage check-in service is developed for the case of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, with the focus on logistics organization and the business model.

Driving forces for transport companies to implement sustainable fleet measures are the rising demand for green transportation and consciousness for the importance of a sustainable responsible business. Furthermore, transport companies face difficulties with upcoming stringent legislation on environmental zone access. Challenges rise when sustainable measures need to be implemented, since most measures are still in their infancy or no elaborate experience is available and since environmental benefits have to be balanced with investments. The aim of this research is to assist DHL the Netherlands with the sustainability strategy decision-making process. The research focused primarily on opportunities for reducing C02-emissions, by presenting measures which can be applied on the large goods fleet of the Express division of DHL the Netherlands. The main research question was formulated as follows: 'To what extent can the transport of large goods of DHL the Netherlands be optimized from the perspective of C02-reduction and under which conditions will a reduction in CO2-emission in practice actually occur?'

An ex-ante evaluation of CO2-emission reducing policy for container transport in the Netherlands, with a GIS-based model that uses detailed characteristics of modes.

CEVA Logistics in The Hague is a 3PL that performs logistics activities for its customers. These activities include transportation and different warehousing activities. CEVA's main customer is KPN. It shows that the capacity needed in order to perform the activities at CEVA is not scheduled properly. This is caused by fluctuating demand and late knowledge of the demand. KPN forwards the demand of their customers towards CEVA, however the demand is only known the evening before and during the day. The effect is that there is over- or under capacity, which causes that overtime is needed or extra temporary personnel is needed at the last moment. This will lead to low productivity and extra costs. To better schedule the required capacity a forecasting and planning tool was developed. The main research question is: Can costs be saved and the service level increased by using a forecasting and planning tool? Cooperation with KPN in the development process of this tool is important, because KPN knows when the demand gets influenced by sales promotions, introductions and back orders. The most labour-intensive process is the outbound handling, therefore it is important to schedule the capacity for these processes accurate. The objective of this project is to design a forecasting and planning tool with which the demand of the customers of KPN of the 6 outbound handling order processes can be forecasted and with which the required capacity can be scheduled more accurate at CEVA.

This report contains the detailed course of designing an ontology that formalises the domain knowledge of City Logistics and in turn facilitates relevant agent-based modelling. Validation and example of application are also included. The formal output of this work is an ontology document edited with Web Ontology Language (OWL) and is named as 'City_logistics_ontology.owr.

This summary provides a brief account of the background, approach, analysis and conclusions of this thesis. Construction is characterized as a high hazard industry which contains a wide range of activities including construction, alteration and/or repair (Michaels, 2010). The organizations involved in construction projects are project owner, designer, contractor/sub-contractors, suppliers. According to Benton&McHenry (2010), the material-delivery system is an important success factor for a construction project, which involves many companies such as professionals and suppliers. However, suppliers, which have limited control on a construction project, are an important organization involved in a material-delivery system of construction projects. Thus improvements on the performance of suppliers can contribute to an effective and efficient material-delivery system of a construction project. In a construction project, last-minute deliveries are one of the problems suppliers have encountered. Therefore, this research is based on the notion that reducing the influences exerted by last-minute deliveries on construction supply chain can improve suppliers’ performance, which in turn contributes to an effective and efficient material-delivery system of a construction project. It aims to explore how the construction supply chain should be in order to have less last-minute deliveries. The main research questions stem from these ideas and are defined as follows: How can the planning process be organized for suppliers from a supply chain perspective in order to lead to a better process with less last minute deliveries to construction sites? To answer this main research question, first a literature review is conducted to explore what is already known about how to improve the performance of material-delivery system of construction projects. Prior work on the improvement of material-delivery system was found to address some issues on two aspects: 1) Construction project management Increase the material-delivery system of construction projects from a project management perspective 2) Construction supply chain Increase the material-delivery system of construction projects from a supply chain perspective But improving the performance of construction supply chain from a supplier’s perspective by reducing the number of last-minute deliveries is not explored. To answer the main research questions, seven research sub-questions are formulated. The process of answering the sub questions are divided into two phases: analysis phase and design phase. The analysis phase is focusing on clarifying the current problem situation and the reasons for higher number of last-minute deliveries to construction sites. While the design phase aims to identifying best practices concerning construction supply chain and applying these practices to the supply chain of one construction projects supplier --- Legrand B.V.. The seven research sub-questions are listed below: Analysis Phase 1) What is the current situation related to the construction organization, supply chain process and the problem of last minute-deliveries 2) What is the current situation related to the planning process for construction supply chain? 3) What are the reasons for a higher number of last-minute deliveries in construction projects? Design Phase 4) What are the best practices concerning the planning process in construction projects from a supply chain perspective so far? 5) What can be learned by evaluating the best practices in the current situation in order to make recommendations on how the redesigned planning process should be? 6) What is the recommendation on how the planning process can be organized in construction projects from a supply chain perspective? 7) What are the benefits of the recommended solutions for both Legrand and related stakeholders? In this thesis, a multi-method strategy including interview, document review and literature review is used for data collection in order to increase the credibility and validity of the results (K.Yin, 2003). Additionally, root-cause analysis is also used to find the root cause of higher number of last-minute deliveries to construction sites. The first two research sub-questions are about identifying the current situations with respect to construction organization structure, construction supply chain, problem scale of last minute deliveries and the current planning process in construction projects from a supply chain perspective, thus related data are needed to collect to visualize these current situations. In this research, literature review and document review are conducted to identify the current situations. Additionally, eight interviews in related construction organizations also contribute to the identification of the current situations. Thus, the credibility and validity of the current situation are increased by employing these three kinds of data collection methods. In chapter 4 which is for answering research sub-question 3, root-cause analysis is used to identify the root causes for higher number of last-minute deliveries to construction sites. Root cause is the most basic reason for an undesirable condition or problem which, if eliminated or decreased, would have prevented or mitigated it from occurring (Paulf, Dell, & Anderson, 1993). In this research, one of the technic for root cause analysis ----- events and causal factors analysis is chosen as a tool for analyzing, because the construction organization is complex and also there are surrounding conditions (Paulf, Dell, & Anderson, 1993). For research sub-question 4 which is focusing on finding the best practices concerning the planning process in the construction projects from a supply chain perspective, literature review is considered as a method. According to Yin (2003), one approach which can be considered as an analytic strategy is to use analytic technique such as creating some requirements and showing if some evidence satisfies those requirements. Thus in this research, sub question 5 and 6 are answered by displaying all the alternative solutions identified in Chapter 4 and evaluating them in the current situation by means of balanced scorecard. According to the interviews and related document, literatures, it derives that there are three controllable root causes for the higher number of last-minute deliveries to construction sites:  Viable demand from client  Imperfect design  Lack of communication among construction contractors In order to reduce the number of last-minute deliveries to construction sites caused by the three controllable root causes, five recommendations have been made for the suppliers involved in construction projects. The five recommendations have different priorities. The most promising strategies are Partnership development, and building information modeling. Firstly, by participating into the design phase of a construction project and simulating the whole construction process, not only the number of rush orders caused by imperfect design and lack of communication among the whole construction organization can be reduced, but also this strategy can benefit the whole construction organizations. On the other hand, agile supply chain, logistics centers are also two strategies which can improve supplier’s construction supply chain performance by quickly responding customers’ needs, therefore mitigating the influences exerted by rush orders. Thirdly, postponement by means of modularization, standardization is also a promising strategy, although most of the electrical materials for construction projects are already standardized. It indicates that the standardization can be improved to a more detailed level, which makes the assembly on sites more flexible, so urgent demands from customers can be satisfied more quickly. This thesis contributes to both theory and management in the following ways: With respect to the academic contribution of this research, it can be found on the integration of expertise and research efforts aiming to result in the advancement of knowledge on the field of construction supply chain management and logistics. It may resolve theoretical questions such as whether the number of last-minute deliveries in construction projects can be reduced by redesign the construction supply chain. Bridging this scientific gap can lead in substantial conclusions and valuable practical applications. In addition, the managerial contribution of this research can be seen on the number of managerial terms intervening in this endeavor. Since several years ago, most of the manufacturing companies recognized that supply chain management can be a new way of doing business. The implementation of this new approach was a consequence of various changes in manufacturing environments. All these indicate that construction logistics is an interesting area for construction suppliers to make higher profit. Also, for construction project managers, construction logistics can help them understand the projects and the planning procedure better.

KLM Cargo would like to improve short-term resource scheduling at their World Port cargo handling terminal, in order to increase both quality and efficiency of their service. Forecasts of air cargo demand could support decisions on manpower deployment. This thesis contains a forecast comparison study for short-term forecasts of the amount of departing cargo from World Port in kilograms per day, based on historical booking data. A single regression forecast model on pre-departure booking levels came up as top-performing model, capable of predicting cargo demand per day with only 3% mean absolute percentage error. This thesis also examines departure behaviour over the course of each day of the week. Furthermore, arrival behaviour is analysed, which is defined as the connection between the departure flow and several arrival flows at the terminal. The main conclusions out of the behavior analyses is that cargo departure is unevenly spread out over each day and that cargo is delivered at World Port relatively far in advance of planned departure.

In this thesis the current inventory control at the Defence Material Organisation is analysed in light of the pending implementation of the SAP-ECC/DFPS ERP-system for demand forecasting and inventory control. The scope for this research has been set on the demand forecasting of weapon systems related spare parts under training and peace-time conditions. This was done for the Directorate of Material Policy of the Defence Material Organisation (DMO).

The logistics department of Schiphol Airport Retail supplies 14 shops behind custom gates on Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. This research describes improvements to the shop supply system with the use of demand forecast and decoupling moments.

Product lifecycles are becoming increasingly short in several industries. This has implications on the way companies are able to organize and adapt their operations. This thesis explores how supply chains can be reconfigured to adapt to such changes over the product life cycle. The main research questions are defined as: 1. What are the requirements that the product lifecycle places on the supply chain? 2. How can supply chains be reconfigured by incorporating flexibility to respond to the requirements of the product lifecycle? To answer these questions, a theoretical framework is first developed based on the relation between product life cycles and supply chain management in the literature. As the research involves an exploratory approach, the case study method was determined to be appropriate and four case studies are developed based on data collected from literature, company documents and interviews. From the cases and literature on supply chain flexibility, possibilities for reconfiguration over the product life cycle are presented.

In the past decades there has been a steep increase in global trade. The current crises however emphasize that trends can change quickly and have a lasting effect on the economy. Due to their large, long term investments, ports in particular need a good understanding of the future state of transport and logistics systems. Scenario based modeling can assist in doing this. This thesis presents three distinctive scenarios, the modeling approach and the results. Each scenario has a different geographical orientation: global, regional and local. The scenario of ‘Globalization under Chinese influence’ shows a world where globalization continues with a new market leader being China. ‘Regional production’ characterizes a market driven world with production closer to the market and more flexible supply chains. Finally, ‘Local for Local’ shows what the effects are of a scenario where local production and trade prevails and global trade is dominated by raw materials. A case study is applied to determine the effects of the scenarios on the container throughput in the Port of Rotterdam, a modelling approach is applied. Trade flows are estimated using a growth model based on GDP and gravity. This classical but effective method was applied to predict global trade between all countries. The transportation model that was used has both a global scope as well as a detailed multi-modal hinterland for Europe.

Transport collaboration has been applied in many different industries both on vertical and horizontal level; to improve transport performance and reduce transport costs. In the air cargo industry currently limited transport collaboration exists both on horizontal and vertical level for inner airport transport of freight forwarding companies. High growth rates and healthy operating margins had limited the need for extensive collaboration in the past. However due to changing dynamics of air cargo transport use and type of shipments that are transported at major established airport in Western Europe, like Schiphol airport, there is an increased focus on cost reductions and improved transport performance. Therefore horizontal transport collaboration could be applied to improve the transport performance and costs for air cargo freight forwarders active at major airports. This research has tried to reveal the potential and main challenges of applying horizontal transport collaboration at Schiphol airport for air cargo shipments. This research has combined both qualitative and qualitative methods to support the potential of horizontal transport collaboration within a large air cargo system, by combining analyses on different major cargo airports with both a case study simulation model and system analysis on specific shipment collaboration at Schiphol as a whole. The results of this study indicate that for many freight forwarding companies, supporting horizontal transport collaboration could significantly improve transport costs and performance. However in order realize the potential benefits of horizontal transport collaboration; companies will have to transport shipments on regular basis that are suitable for transport collaboration. Also forwarding companies will have to be much more flexible and adaptive, regarding the use of different types of transport and the way shipments are collected/delivered, in order to make horizontal transport successful based on costs and performance. With the expected lower growth rates of air cargo and more dynamic transport of air cargo shipments with lower operating margins at major established airports in Western Europe, horizontal transport collaboration is also expected to be effective approach for coming decades. Given the existing overcapacity at most air cargo handlers at different airports and the reluctance of air cargo handlers to invest in more automated systems, due to uncertainty about air cargo growth. Besides this supporting horizontal transport collaboration can also improve the relationships with air cargo handlers, forwarders and transport companies, which can make part of the air cargo transport more stable and effective. It can give the air cargo handler and forwarder the ability to offer different transport concepts to their customers. However to truly realize the full potential of horizontal transport collaboration, the use of horizontal transport has to be frequently assessed and improved, due to changing shipment dynamics of the involved companies. Next to this the remaining single company transport use should also be adapted as well on regular basis, in order to improve the transport costs and performance of the complete transport system. Not all forwarding companies active at a major airport, will be willing or able to support either horizontal or vertical transport collaboration, therefore it is advised to assess the possibility for all air cargo handlers individually, at major airports, to apply segmentation on transport collaboration. This segmentation should be assessed regarding potential and the ability of companies to collaborate within a specific transport flow, between the warehouses of two or more companies. This means that both forwarders and air cargo handlers should support vertical and horizontal transport collaboration when it results in; higher benefits for their own organization, for the other involved stakeholders and all companies are able to effectively support the intended collaboration.