The role of logistics in Europe

Freight Transport Logistics focuses on the planning, organisation, management, control and execution of freight transport operations in the supply chain. It is one of the key industries in the European Union. Since 1999 the overall logistics value has risen by 55% and according to estimations, the logistic industry’s part on Europe’s GDP is about 14%. In 2007, 580,000 European road freight logistics enterprises in the EU-27 employed about 2.9 mio people and generated a turnover of more than 290 bn Euros.

In the classical approach of business studies and logistic, the partners of the logistic networks are an isolated combination without connection. The term ‘Supply Chain Management’ is relatively new. In the widest point of view, the supply chain not only includes the producer and its suppliers; depending on the logistical flows it also considers processors, transporters, warehouses, retailers, service organizations and consumers. In the definition of SCM, a ‘business process’ can be seen as a structured, measured set of activities designed to produce a specified output for a particular customer or market.

Apart from SCM, the industry is focused on implementing advanced information and communication technologies (ICT) since several years. Their purpose is to contribute to fleet management, goods tracking and mass flow visualisation. Improvements in the cooperation between the industry, officials and research institutions are necessary. Even after many years of collaboration, there are several obstacles to be sorted out like missing data exchange standards and the unequal use of ICT.

The efforts of today’s industry trend towards RFID and GIS

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a generic term that is used to describe a system that transmits the identity (in the form of a unique serial number) of an object or person wirelessly, using radio waves. It is this ability to share information about the location of products anywhere in the supply chain that makes RFID a potentially powerful technology. RFID is designed to enable readers to capture data on tags and transmit it to a computer system - without needing a person to be involved.

There are several possibilities to use RFID in the wood sector. One idea could be to assign an RFID tag to the round wood immediately after felling. Information like its position, owner, dimensions, weight and quality can be stored on the tag and this information can be used as allocation base. The information about quality and quantity can be transmitted to a server where the consecutive industry can get locations and quantities. When transporting in the saw mill, RFID scanners can easily register this information; mass flux studies therefore will be easier to make and the data can be drawn in a GIS system.

GIS stands for geographic information system. It integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. A GIS helps answer questions and solve problems by looking at data in a way that is quickly understood and easily shared; the technology can be integrated into any enterprise information system framework.

As a special RTD topic, investigations in wood measurements must be pushed in the near future. There are many different possibilities and development options. Starting from harvesting of the round wood up to factory measuring; many steps in the process chain can be optimised to reduce the production costs, to increase the recovery factor in the saw milling industry and therefore increase the value of wood on the market. Possibilities in this field can be e.g. the measurement on the living stock and quality evaluation of the round wood and sawn wood which are still at its beginning and need special focus.

IN2WOOD's RTD questions

IN2WOOD responds to these trends, based on the context and needs of forestry in the regions.

The overall objective is to optimise LOGISTICS workflows using geo-information and IT systems.

The following topics are targeted:

▪       Implementation of data exchange standard

▪       Database for programs and projects

▪       Development of strong forest owner associations

▪       Supply chain management

▪       Analysis of the regional mass flux, supported by regional GIS based platforms