Ultimate: Efficient Multimodal Hinterland Networks
Start: June 2010
Period: 4 years
Businesses in the Netherlands play an important role in a large number of global supply chains. This position has resulted from centuries of trading activities, one of the largest ports in the world, a strong fiscal-financial infrastructure, and a strong and innovative logistics industry. Chain innovations that are initiated by “supply chain owners” often find their focal point in the Netherlands.
Different firms in multimodal hinterland networks, such as terminal operators, freight forwarders, information service providers, infrastructure managers, shippers, and receivers, all aim to contribute to a better performance of the overall supply chain. This ambition comes with serious and unexplored challenges, but they are also a tremendous opportunity to develop a sustainable competitive advantage for the Netherlands as the gateway to the European hinterland. The seamless flow of goods from seaports to locations far into the hinterland will be a major enabler to prevent negative external effects from the transport, such as congestion in seaports, congestion on motorways due to too much trucking, and enhance the competitiveness of multimodal inland nodes for warehousing and value added activities.
First results
On Friday May 20 2011, Dianne Soons was the first student to obtain her master’s title with one of the 8 Dinalog R&D projects.
Ms. Soons developed a model for the Ultimate project that, on the one hand, calculates the advantages and savings that the bundling of load flows deliver, as well as the increased reliability and, on the other hand, it proposes the sharing of these advantages and savings across all the participating companies.
Summary Master thesis Project D.E. Soons BSc.
Compleet Master thesis Project D.E. Soons BSc.
Project manager Ultimate : Dr. A.W. Veenstra (email address albert.veenstra@tno.nl)
