In times of globalization and constant change, worldwide logistics and SCM are facing global megatrends and thus changing external conditions in the following 3 areas:

• Security, environment, and politics
• Customers and markets
• Technology

These factors, together with the resulting developments in the service provision of companies, have a strong influence on logistics and SCM and lead to new and changed requirements for the design of current and future logistics systems worldwide.

From a large number of developments and megatrends with special significance for logistics and SCM, three were selected which, together with the challenges they pose, will be the focus of the study:

• Logistics in growing markets (especially India and Russia)
• Effects of increasing environmental awareness on logistics and the resulting action strategies
• Provide increased responsiveness and transparency in the supply chain

An online survey was created to study current and future strategies (time period 2015+) with which large, globally positioned companies from industry and trade are dealing with these challenges. The survey is aimed at logistics managers of companies worldwide who, by participating after completion of the survey, will receive a benchmark report comparing their strategies with those of other top companies in their industry. Besides, market-leading companies from Russia and India are invited to participate in the survey.

After the survey has been completed, the second step will be to determine, using an evaluation of the study differentiated according to sectors and regions, which logistics strategies will be most important in the future for dealing with the above-mentioned challenges. Furthermore, it will be studied to what extent the logistics and their strategies of companies from India and Russia differ from those of Western companies.

Logistics service providers will also be directly or indirectly affected by the changed logistics strategies of their clients in the context of logistics outsourcing by industry and trade. For this reason, in a final step, the implications of changed logistics strategies in industry and trade for logistics service providers and complex logistics services, such as contract logistics, will be analyzed in the context of a holistic view of industry, trade, and logistics services.

Project Sponsor: Deutsche Bahn AG – DB Schenker

Project duration: 01.10.2006 – 31.12.2008