Construction: improving the understanding of urban freight distribution

On 16-19 April 2018, in the framework of its research project SUCCESS, the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) participated in the Transport Research Arena 2018 (TRA 2018) conference held in Vienna, Austria.

Introducing the CIVITAS Horizon H2020 project “Sustainable Urban Consolidation CentrES for conStruction” (SUCCESS), LIST presented a unique topic for the conference: the institute was the only organisation talking about logistics in the construction sector and presenting a view to improve the efficiency and reduce negative impacts of the construction supply chain by exploring and testing reliable and innovative solutions.

Under the heading of “A digital Era for Transport”, TRA 2018 has been an arena for researchers, companies and public authorities active in the field of transport. The common vision of the future is primarily linked to the evolution and implementation of different technologies that are driven by digitalization. LIST researcher Cindy Guerlain was the institute’s representative in this international event focusing on three areas:

• How digitalisation is transforming transport & mobility systems
• Decarbonisation & future growth – how to change our mobility system & remain competitive
• Shaping the new mobility landscape – a vision for transport & mobility for Europe

Connected vehicles, integrated network management, the planning and management of infrastructure with tools such as Building Information Modelling or the Internet of Things, are only a few of those technologies that can be named. In this context, Carole Desnost, Chief Innovation Officer at SNCF, and Axel Flaig, Head of Research and Technology at Airbus have announced the trains and airplanes controlled without any human intervention will soon be part of our daily life (by five years for trains and ten years for airplanes). 

Cindy Guerlain was invited as a guest speaker at the “Innovative Urban Freight Developments Smart Urban Mobility & Logistics” workshop and gave an oral presentation on how to improve the knowledge and understanding of urban freight distribution related to the construction sector. She presented to about 80 attendees the publication entitled “Urban Freight: What About Construction Logistics?” written by LIST researchers Cindy Guerlain, Samuel Renault and Francesco Ferrero. Her presentation included logistics characteristics in comparison with other supply chains and also, the identified barriers and triggers towards a more sustainable urban freight transport for the construction sector.

Only a few researches are carried on construction logistics and supply chain while the awareness of ways to optimize them is low among professionals from the construction sector. Despite the similarities with other supply chains, the analysis of the construction supply chain shows significant differences in the logistics patterns.

In a nutshell, the urban construction supply chain is unique and understudied. The construction sector suffers from a low productivity and so does its supply chain. The risk of downward cycles is a barrier to investment in productivity from construction related companies. Experiences from the ongoing SUCCESS project, aiming at identifying the costs and benefits associated with the introduction of Construction Consolidation Centres and other optimization strategies, are used to identify potential ways to make urban construction logistics more sustainable.

This topic enhances interest of more and more stakeholders and as Paola Cossu from the Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration - who is the co-chair of the Urban Logistics Working group - confirmed and pointed out that the topic was not well covered nowadays. She also acknowledged significant differences in the logistics patterns compared with other supply chains in urban areas making a strong interest to propose specific solutions for this sector.

> More information on SUCCESS project >www.success-urbanlogistics.eu.

> For any question related to this topic, contact Cindy Guerlain via email.