Logistic information system and transport

The evolution of transport. – The transport sector has evolved considerably since the early 1980s. Among the many factors behind this evolution, the most significant are undoubtedly the development of logistics in industrial and commercial companies, coupled with deregulation and deregulation movements in the transport sector, as well as the development and spread of numerous technologies, particularly those enabling numerous documents and processes to be digitized, and the multiplication of increasingly stringent requirements in terms of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility.

Transportation is an industry in its own right. It is also one of the many operations that make up the logistics chains organized by companies that ship, transfer and receive products.

The choice of transport modes, and the organization and rhythms of exchanges, are the result of a global conception of physical circulation. Transport cannot be separated from logistics, nor can "traction" (or transport itself) be separated from "related" operations (handling, storage, packaging, etc.), all of which are linked to the industrial and commercial strategies of "shippers".

On the one hand, the transport offer (notably through factors such as price, capacity, availability, speed, reliability, flexibility, operating constraints and sustainable performance) encourages the construction of certain logistics systems, and has an impact on the number of industrial, commercial and logistics sites, their location, stock levels and the frequency of restocking.

On the other hand, logistics practices and principles suggest and even require transport companies and transport infrastructure managers to evolve to better meet the "demand" of industrial and commercial companies and their customers.

The relationship between logistics and transport information systems. – To study the relationship between logistics and transport information systems, we feel it is important to present the main trends in logistics, particularly in the field of information systems. While logistics, understood as the "technology" (combining techniques, knowledge and organizational and strategic practices) of "flow management", is mainly concerned with physical flows (i.e., in most cases, flows of goods : from raw materials and packaging to waste, work-in-progress, finished products, spare parts, POS (point-of-sale advertising) products, as well as products to be reused, repaired, remanufactured or recycled), it is thanks to information flows that it manages to "steer" physical flows.

The information and communication system (hereinafter referred to as ICS) thus becomes the central element of the logistics system. As logistics...