Invited review paper on managing disruption risk in express logistics via proactive planning

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Industrial Management & Data Systems, Volume 115, Issue 8

We are delighted to present the third, and also the last invited review, of this year for IMDS. The topic is on a very emerging theme which is Express Logistics with a focus on proactive planning subject to disruption risk. Express Logistics Management is a special form of logistics management, which is no exception to the issues generated by uncertainties. Therefore, various forms of risk are always present and a proactive planning could be a feasible approach to counteract the aforementioned issues.

According to a recent article by International Air Transport Association (IATA) (2015), global demand of air cargo is estimated to grow at about 5 percent annually in the next 20 years. The number of aircrafts in the world will increase from 20,840 in 2012 to 29,955 in 2022. Among which, it is estimated that Mainland China will reach about 44 million tonnes of air cargo, and with 5,000 new aircrafts. This evidently shows the significant demands of express logistics by air-transportation.

Figure 1 is based on a search on the terms express logistics without any screening or filtering. One can see that the number of papers from Elsevier is about three times more than from Emerald. However, Figure 1(a) and (b) are consistent in terms of the increasing in studies from 2010 to 2014. In fact, express logistics nowadays becomes the major component in constructing supply chain networks. It has attracted much more attention than ever.

Figure 1 Number of articles related to express logistics

Therefore, it is timely to publish our third invited review for 2015 in the area of express logistics in air-transportation with the title of “Managing disruption risk in express logistics via proactive planning.” This invited paper is co-authored by Professor T.M. Choi, Dr S.H. Chung, and Dr Y.K. Tse. This paper provides a comprehensive review for state-of-the-art works in disruption risk management of express logistics mainly supported by air-transportation. This paper also suggests some new research directions and useful insights for express logistics practitioners to develop more robust planning in air-transportation.

Hing Kai Chan and Alain Yee Loong Chong

Reference

IATA (2015), “IATA Annual Review”, available at: www.iata.org/about/Documents/iata-annual-review-2015.pdf (accessed 15 August 2015)

About the Editors

T.M. Choi is a Professor of Fashion Business at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests are in the areas of supply chain management and applied optimization for fashion business operations. He has authored/edited 11 research handbooks and published over 100 papers in leading journals such as AOR, Automatica, DSS, EJOR, IEEE TAC, IEEE TEM, IEEE TII, IEEE TSMC, POM, etc. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of IJIR and an Associate Editor/Senior Editor of DSS, IEEE SMC – S, IS. He also served as the Guest Editor of journals such as DSJ, IEEE TII, POM.

Dr S.H. Chung is an Assistant Professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests are in the areas of supply chain and logistics, optimization, and scheduling problems. He has published over 50 papers in peer-refereed academic journals such as IEEE TIE, IEEE SJ, Omega, DSS, TR-E, JOMS, IJPE, IJPR, etc. He served as the Guest Editor of journal such as IJPR.

Dr Y.K. Tse is a Lecturer in the York Management School at the University of York. His research interests are in the areas of risk perception and risk mitigation practices in solving supply chain quality risk by multiple research approach (big social data mining, case study, and large-scale survey). Dr Tse works with UK and international companies on supply chain quality risk management, process management, food fraud management. His research has been funded by competitive funding bodies like the CILT, British Academy. He has published 20 papers in peer-refereed academic journals such as IJPE, IJPR, ESWA, CnE, JMTM, IMDS, among others.