Research collaboration generates results

Cardiff Business School’s Logistics and Operations Management section’s research collaboration with Yusen Logistics is delivering valuable insight and workable recommendations.

During the summer of 2016, Yusen Logistics, an award-winning global logistics provider, approached the Business School to investigate and assess the importance of communication and the current level of relationship among European cold chain logistics suppliers.

Yusen Logistics identifies ‘connectivity’ as a priority and is committed to delivering world-class service to their customers. As such, exploring the relationships between fourth party logistics (4PL), customers and freight carriers is important to the company. Cardiff Business School was in charge of scrutinising past, present and future relationship models, with a view to better understanding what makes the relationships within a 4PL network successful and how an exemplar relationship could be replicated across the Pan-European network Yusen manages on behalf of GSK.

This work, conducted by postgraduate students Avinash Rao Majji and Fathima Maleena Awn, was overseen by Dr Maneesh Kumar and Dr Vasco Sanchez Rodrigues.

Avinash and Fathima’s research included a bespoke hundred-point survey ranking sheet, which was used for blind benchmarking of the participants against the performance criteria using the Analytical Hierarchy Process. In addition to this, they analysed gathered data and the design of a Conceptual Model with the description and importance rating of various relationship attributes, affecting factors and possible improvements. Read more about the findings through the Yusen Logistics blog.

Cardiff Business School will expand on its original research at Yusen’s request. Two live summer projects have been commissioned to evaluate the relationship between Yusen and GSK in their 4PL contract. Dr Sanchez Rodrigues will lead this work on behalf of the Business School.