I interviewed Cecilia Strokirk, Project Manager and Researcher for Seamless Transports and Logistics, at RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden) and an Advisory Board Member of the Foundation for Future Supply Chain. I asked her to explain the projects she is involved in and how the research will affect the future of transports and logistics management.
Transport nodes, such as seaports, inland terminals, airports, highways and railroads are hubs in a multimodal transportation network that should facilitate the smooth operation of passengers and freight.
The Seamless Transports orientation at RISE is aiming to make such transport nodes well integrated into the transport chain. Different industries have widely diverging needs – the transport ecosystem is composed of many autonomous transport operators. For example, 90% of all goods transported in the world use maritime transport, but the goods must get to the ship then be transported from the ship using different modes of transport, which puts a lot of pressure on the seaport as a transport node.
Digitalization helps transport nodes to be smoothly integrated into this transport ecosystem, coordinating operations, and allowing efficient transport movements between nodes. This brings several benefits, such as improved supply chain visibility, the integration of track and trace capabilities, as well as automation of operations, energy efficiency, safety, security, and information resilience.
To support Seamless Transport, approximately 23 living labs (labs which operate in a real-life context with a user-centric approach) are being conducted within FEDeRATED, a European financed project for digital co-operation in logistics, together with 15 partners from public sector and business. The Call for Action was in 2018, the Masterplan in January 2019, the Mid Term Conference was on 24th of November 2021, and the project will end by December 2023. The practical living labs focus upon how information sharing and collaboration, amongst parties along the transport chain for selected events within a transport corridor, may be empowered by digital means. An example of a living lab is a project with IATA where they have 11 (sub) living labs. The emphasis is to establish a federated network of platforms connecting local environments with each other.
In summary, the research by RISE, supported by the project FEDeRATED should help information to flow more smoothly through supply chains, connect transport nodes and enable the collection and sharing of reliable and trustworthy data. The living labs find business cases that work, resulting in both business and societal benefits.
The article about “Digital ecosystem in action – a federative approach to sustainable and seamless multi -modal transport chains” is to be found at: https://maritimeinformatics.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Digital-ecosystem-innovation-in-action.pdf
Information on the EU project FEDeRATED is available on the platform http://www.federatedplatforms.eu
Learn more about what we do at RISE within Seamless Transports and Logistics https://www.ri.se/en/what-we-do/expertises/enabling-seamless-transports-through-sustainable-transport-nodes
Source: Foundation for Future Supply Chain, January 13th, 2022
Author: Julia Swales
