Sustainable Solutions for SCM

6 CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSION FOR THE PROCESSES OF DISTRIBUTION AND WAREHOUSING

6.1 Emissions, energy consumption and greenhouse gases A typical transportation chain consists of the following steps: operation, transportation and warehousing. In the operation step, products are produced from rawmaterial and packed for the ongoing processes. Usually the products are stored in a warehouse before the next transportation step. Before the products reach the final customer it could be transported and stored at different times. A typical transportation chain is shown in Figure 6.1.

Figure 6.1 Transportation chain of a product For example, the product is produced in Eastern Europe. After the first warehousing process it is transported by train to a distribution centre in Central Europe. From there a truck transports the product to the store of a retailer where the product is sold to the customer. During this transportation chain different possibilities exist for the transportation mode and the kind of warehousing. Transportation modes can be differentiated into:

• Truck transport. • Train transport. • Sea transport. • Air transport.

Costs, capacity and delivery time were in the past the main criteria for choosing the transport mode. Transports by container ships have a large capacity, they operate with low costs but have a high delivery time. Air transport with planes have vice versa a low capacity, high costs per transported good but can manage one-day-transportation worldwide. Warehouses in a transportation chain have the task to harmonise the flow of material in a supply chain. The customer request in terms of quantity and delivery time cannot only be fulfilled by a flexible production. Stock is needed to keep a supply chain running. Warehousing can mean holding stock for a couple of months, or it could mean in a wider range just sorting incoming goods and re-loading them for ongoing transportation. The last process happens in a cross-dock. The difference is the magnitude of the stock and so of the required space of the warehouse.

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