» Home        Tying it all together: The challenge of integration in and through gateways Prof. Trevor Heaver, University of British Columbia, Canada Abstract The dramatic changes that have taken place in transport and information and communications technologies (ICT) in recent decades have enabled major improvements in the pursuit of more efficient logistics arrangements for international trade. The goal of getting goods to the customer as efficiently as possible has not changed but the way this can be achieved has been revolutionized. Transportation and ICT technologies have enabled new levels of integration in intermodal transportation and in the control of logistics activities. As a consequence, a new vocabulary has evolved to capture the concepts and methods for managing current logistics systems. The ability of supply chains to be global owes much to the efficiency of logistics systems, as reflected in the growth of international trade. The challenge of handling this trade efficiently through ports and airports has given rise to the concept of gateways, a concept that captures the importance of many activities in these communities. However, result in gateways being the most difficult part of many supply chains in which to achieve effective and efficient integration. The challenges arise from the number and characteristics of the gateway activities and the urban environments in which they take place. However, too little attention is often given to the effective integration of the numerous activities performed in gateways so that the gateways become sources of constraints and inefficiencies in the logistics systems. Stronger initiatives are needed to tie gateway activities together. Success is not easy to achieve as strategic and operational cooperation is required among many firms as well as with 2/8 public sector organizations. Solutions are not likely to be found in any single community organization but in greater communication and cooperative among participants and in greater assumption of responsibility by lead logistics organizations. « Back to Abstracts  ©2007 Center for Transportation Studies, UBC. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy