Lauriane Milan

Bio: Lauriane Milan is an academic researcher from Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The author has contributed to research in topics: Stakeholder & Impact assessment. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 8 publications receiving 180 citations.

Does a Mobile Depot Make Urban Deliveries Faster, More Sustainable and More Economically Viable: Results of a Pilot Test in Brussels

Abstract: A Mobile Depot (MD) is a trailer fitted with a loading dock, warehousing facilities and an office. The trailer is used as a mobile inner city base from where last-mile deliveries and first-mile pick-ups are done with electrically supported cyclocargos. In the morning and evening it is used to transport shipments from and to a peripheral depot. The MD was developed by TNT Express as a response to the challenging urban working conditions: narrow streets, mixed traffic, traffic congestion, congestion charging, environmental zones, etc. TNT Express tested this innovative concept in Brussels for a period of three months in 2013 as part of the European FP7 project STRAIGHTSOL. Regular TNT Express deliveries and pick-ups in Brussels are carried out from the TNT depot at the Brussels freight airport using diesel trucks for pallets and using diesel vans for parcels and documents. During the trial period, the parcels and documents destined for a part of the inner city were delivered and picked up through the MD. This new way of working resulted in a decrease of the number of diesel kilometres from 1.34 km per stop in the Business-As-Usual scenario to 0.52 km per stop in the Mobile-Depot scenario. This decrease can be linked to a positive environmental impact with, for example, 24% less emission of CO2 and up to 59% less emission of PM2.5. TNT Express was able to successfully integrate the MD in their operations. Service levels dropped slightly mainly due to the additional time needed to load the cyclocargos. However, none of the TNT customers complained about the quality of service. For TNT, delivering through the MD was twice as expensive as before. However, they feel it is possible to further decrease the operational costs by using the MD at its full capacity (the MD was only used at 40% of its full capacity) and by further refining the handling. A multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) of the MD concept revealed under which conditions it would become a more profitable concept to TNT Express: internalised external costs, higher capacity use and higher drop density. The MAMCA also revealed that the benefits are mostly for the other stakeholders, especially society.

A stakeholder-based multicriteria evaluation framework for city distribution

Abstract: Urban areas face particular challenges for freight transport, both in terms of logistical performance and environmental impact. Many innovative city distribution concepts have failed because not all stakeholders were taken into account in the decision-making process ( Macharis & Melo, 2011 ). There is a clear need for a comprehensive approach to evaluate urban freight solutions in order to assess their chance of success. A new evaluation framework was worked out within the STRAIGHTSOL project (strategies and measures for smarter urban freight solutions, EC FP7) and incorporates the city distribution actors and their objectives as the primary focus. The multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) methodology developed by Macharis, 2005 , Macharis, 2007 ties with this aim and is complemented with other methods such as the cost–benefit analysis and business modeling. The so-called city distribution — multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (CD-MAMCA) methodology is fully explained through a case study with Kuehne and Nagel which tested real-time remote monitoring of the cargo leading to improve rail tracking and warehouse management in Thessaloniki.

PROMETHEE-GDSS revisited: Applications so far and new developments

Abstract: The PROMETHEE method, developed by Brans (1982) and Brans and Mareschal (1994) has been extended to be used in the group decision context (as described in Macharis et al., 1998). PROMETHEE has thus been embedded in GDSS and has been widely used in various decision contexts. The aim of the paper is to analyse how PROMETHEE-GDSS has been applied and which further developments can enhance its applicability. The analysis is structured along a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis and on the basis of this analysis recommendations are given.

Multi-actor multi-criteria analysis for sustainable city distribution: a new assessment framework

Abstract: Urban areas are facing several challenges, especially to organise freight transport in a sustainable way. Many innovative city distribution concepts have failed because not all stakeholders were taken into account in the decision-making process. Evaluating urban freight solutions summons the need for a new approach, taking into consideration different conflicting objectives from different stakeholders. Within STRAIGHTSOL (strategies and measures for smarter urban freight solutions, EC FP7), a systematic impact assessment framework dedicated to freight transportation has been developed. The so-called city distribution - multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (CD-MAMCA) incorporates the city distribution actors and their objectives as the primary focus complemented with a MCDA performed with the PROMETHEE-GDSS method. In this paper, the specific framework dedicated to city distribution is fully explained through a case study in the UK charity sector with Oxfam which tested remote monitoring of the banks leading to dynamic collection scheduling.

50th Anniversary Invited Article—City Logistics: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract: Today, around 54% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050, this share is expected to go up significantly. As a result, city logistics, which focuses on the efficient and effective transportation of goods in urban areas while taking into account the negative effects on congestion, safety, and environment, is critical to ensuring continued quality of life in cities. We review and discuss a variety of current and anticipated challenges and opportunities of city logistics. We hope this helps shaping an appropriate research agenda and stimulates more researchers to enter this exciting field.

A review of last mile logistics innovations in an externalities cost reduction vision

Abstract: In this paper, a review of the recent scientific literature contributions on innovative strategies for last mile logistics, focusing on externalities cost reduction, is presented. Transport is causing problems in urban areas, in particular in freight transport: modern cities need solutions to reduce externalities costs such as congestion, pollution and others, which have increased in the last few years, especially due to the growth of goods delivery. Online sales and globalization lead to new trends in freight transport, and moreover, a larger quantity of goods is expected to be delivered in the next future. In this context, most of the delivered goods end up in the city centers. Last mile logistics is the least efficient stage of the supply chain and comprises up to 28% of the total delivery cost. Therefore, the improvement of last mile logistics and a significant externalities reduction are very important challenges for researchers. New technologies and transport means, innovative techniques and organizational strategies allow handling in a more effective way the last mile delivery in urban areas. Based on the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method, recent papers that significantly contributed, with original proposals, to the reduction of externalities in urban logistics are identified and analyzed in this work. Furthermore, a classification of the papers dealing with the externality reduction problem is presented. It is consistent with a general formulation proposed to evaluate external costs in urban area. The innovative contributions are classified into five main categories: innovative vehicles, proximity stations or points, collaborative and cooperative urban logistics, optimization of transport management and routing, innovations in public policies and infrastructures. The new paradigm of smart logistics is based on the combination of these concepts and on the proposed innovations.

Research in urban logistics: a systematic literature review

Abstract: Purpose The last decades have witnessed an increased interest in urban logistics originating from both the research and the practitioners’ communities. Sustainable freight transports today are on the political, social and technological agenda of many actors operating in urban contexts. Due to the extent of the covered areas and the continuous progress in many fields, the resulting body of research on urban logistics appears quite fragmented. From an engineering management perspective, the purpose of this paper is to present a systematic literature review (SLR) that aims to consolidate the knowledge on urban logistics, analyse the development of the discipline, and provide future research directions. Design/methodology/approach The paper discusses the main evidence emerging from a SLR on urban logistics. The corpus resulting from the SLR has been used to perform a citation network analysis and a main path analysis that together underpin the identification of the most investigated topics and methodologies in the field. Findings Through the analysis of a corpus of 104 articles, the most important research contributions on urban logistics that represent the structural backbone in the development of the research over time in the field are detected. Based on these findings, this work identifies and discusses three areas of potential interest for future research. Originality/value This paper presents an SLR related to a research area in which the literature is extremely fragmented. The results provide insights about the research path, current trends and future research directions in the field of urban logistics.

Application of a novel PROMETHEE-based method for construction of a group compromise ranking to prioritization of green suppliers in food supply chain

Abstract: The food sector has a prodigious focus and is constantly gaining in importance in today’s global economic marketplace. Due to an increasing global population, society faces a greater challenge for sustainable food production, quality, distribution, and food safety in the food supply chain. Adopting green supply chain management (GSCM) elements is essential for utilizing the food supply chain in an environmentally benign way. As a solution to the above challenge, the economic and green characteristics for supplier selection in green purchasing are studied in this paper. For an organization, the evaluation and selection of the green supplier is a vital issue due to several tangible and intangible criteria involved. Accordingly, we apply multiple criteria decision aiding techniques. We propose a hybrid approach that combines the revised Simos procedure, PROMETHEE methods, algorithms for constructing a group compromise ranking, and robustness analysis. At first, the revised Simos procedure is used to derive the criteria weights. Next, the PROMETHEE method is applied to rank the suppliers according to each Decision Maker׳s (DM׳s) preferences. Then, the compromise ranking is constructed to minimize the distance of the individual׳s rankings from the solution adopted by the whole group. For this purpose, we introduce and apply some original procedures based on Binary Linear Programming. Finally, the results are validated against the outcomes of robustness analysis. The applicability and efficiency of the proposed approach is endorsed with a case study in an Indian food industry.