Improving logistics efficiency of industrial districts: a framework and case study in the food sector

摘要

Focused on food industrial districts, this paper proposes an integrated approach to increase sustainability and efficiency of logistics activities. The approach is conceived to design an integrated food district, starting from a set of independent companies, and to quantify the economic savings that could be gained from the pooled management of logistics and transportation activities. Moreover, some environmental aspects are considered in the framework, as complementary features that could justify the sustainability of the new scenario. The approach was verified through a real-case application targeting companies operating in the Italian district of tomato. Results of the application show that the pooled management of packaging procurement, warehousing and transportation activities could generate significant improvements in the district sustainability, in terms of both efficiency and resources used. Due to the lack of quantitative models for the optimisation of industrial districts, the approach developed can represent a useful addition to the literature.