Urban Consolidation Centres (UCCs) are a popular measure in city logistics, but many of the UCC projects are granted only a short life. These facilities are often view as creating benefits for the society and costs for the private sector. Recent research and experiences show however that additional value-added activities performed in these platforms are able to increase the attractiveness of these city logistics schemes.
Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model
A new paper proposes the application of the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model in order to assess the impact of the UCCs on the overall supply chain performance. In particular, the SCOR model allows emphasizing the impact of the UCCs on the reliability, responsiveness and agility of the supply chain. The authors review the current evaluation techniques for the UCC projects and highlight the relevance of a supply chain focused approach. They present the SCOR model and discuss its relevance for the evaluation of UCC projects.
They the authors analysed 10 recent UCC case studies which leads to highlighting the existence of three distinct operating models. Finally, they apply the SCOR model to the different UCC operating models.
The study confirms the UCCs on the reliability, responsiveness and agility of the supply chains. This brings an innovative aspect to the UCC projects evaluation which traditionally only focuses on cost, environmental or asset utilisation related metrics. This analysis can serve to demonstrate the role of UCCs in sustainable city distribution but also in sustainable supply chain management.
Source: