Guest editorial: Towards large-scale industry-wide physical internet deployment
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-06-2022-810 |
| Published date | 10 June 2022 |
| Date | 10 June 2022 |
| Pages | 1413-1415 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
| Author | Hao Luo,Shenle Pan,Xiang T.R. Kong |
Guest editorial: Towards
large-scale industry-wide physical
internet deployment
Physical Internet(PI) is a recent innovative breakthroughin global logistics and supply chain
management (LSCM) that aims to improve, by several orders of magnitude, the economic,
environmental and socially sustainable ways that physical objects are globally moved,
deployed, realized, supplied, designed and used (Montreuil, 2011;Mervis, 2014). The PI is
described as“a global logistics system basedon the interconnection of logisticsnetworks by a
standardized set of collaboration protocols, modular containers, and smart interfaces for
increased efficiency and sustainability”(Ballot et al.,2014;Treiblmaier et al.,2020). After more
than a decade of development, PI has gradually moved forward from conceptual research to
large-scaleenterprise applications.Several specialissues (SI) concentratingon the concept have
been publishedon flagship journals,and have successfully attractedenormous attentions,such
as the firstSI (Pan et al.,2017) aiming at collating the firstresearch works that contributedto the
developmentand applications of the concept, and(Ba llot etal.,2021) gatheringresearch works
investigatinghow PI reshapesthe organizationalmodels and practices in LSCM.More recently,
the SI (Pan et al.,2021) investigated the digital interoperability in PI. It is obvious that
innovations in digital technologies (DT) influence the development of new paradigms,
principles,and models in PI. Everythingin the future physical world would be replicatedin the
digital space through advanced techniques, and across various industrial sectors, including
aerospace, electric power, automotive, manufacturing, healthcare and medicine, logistics and
supplychain, etc. Aligning withthe recent research foci of PI, thepurpose of this special issueis
to develop interdisciplinary researches that address the large-scale industry-wide PI
applications and deployments for major original theories building.
This special issue of Industrial Management and Data Systems contains five research
papers. These papers focus on resent advances topics of physical internet development and
application. Three papers investigated the specific industrial sectors in tobacco logistics, city
logistics in new retail environment and a multi-level supply chain considering the greenhouse
gases optimization. One paper concentrated on the physical internet teaching and learning
aspect, while the last one conducted a review and proposed research opportunities of physical
internet development in industry.
The work by Shen et al. investigated a real-life case of tobacco supply chain in Guangxi
Province, China. Under the management of tobacco monopoly system, China’s tobacco
logistics has formed the characteristics of the separation of industrial logistics and
commercial logistics. The standard three-tier supply chain structure makes tobacco logistics
have a good foundation in the application of PI concept and digital promotion. Based on the
relevant data of tobacco enterprises in Guangxi, the paper calculated the performance values
of tobacco companies in Guangxi. Through the analysis of each indicator and the
performance values of each city, the authors found that the improvement ability has a major
impact on tobacco supply chain performance. Then, the paper established a system dynamics
model to further demonstrate the impact of information digitalization on the performance of
the tobacco supply chain, thus providing theoretical support for building digital tobacco
logistics in Guangxi.
The work by Luo et al. addressed the challenges and solutions of city logistics in the
new retail era. The new retail, which is characterized by omni-channel, fragmented orders
and decentralized 2C distribution, is becoming the mainstream of the retail industry
Guest editorial
1413
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 122 No. 6, 2022
pp. 1413-1415
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-06-2022-810
To continue reading
Request your trial