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The purpose of this paper is to identify current impediments to the competitiveness of the rail industry in the Australian non-bulk freight market.

A systematic literature review was adapted to identify the impediments and challenge themes from 1,081 studies available on the Australian rail industry. To select the studies relevant to the research question, a tollgate criterion was then deployed. Impediments were identified by a structured data synthesis process and a heuristic algorithm was developed to explore the possible relationships between the impediments and challenges.

Four major themes are apparent, each of which presents the rail industry with challenges in the non-bulk freight market. “Infrastructural inefficiencies and the need for further integration” was ranked as the main rail industry challenge, while “environmental concerns and the associated costs of externalities” was the least. In addition, across the four themes data synthesis identified 43 impediments from purely policy related to technical and operational aspects.

The major implication of this review is the identification of impediments that have no linkage to the four industry challenges as revealed by stakeholders in the literature. That means that the rail industry has been dealing with a number of issues that have not been explored and studied in depth either by practitioners or academics. The underlying elements of impediments in this group are perceived as managerial, organisational and leadership factors. The rail industry has failed to manage its organisational ties across the system, both horizontally and vertically. This issue has been intensified as the result of complex interactions between different transport modes and operators associated with the non-bulk freight sector.

For the first time in the Australian context, this study provides an en masse and summarised picture of impediments to the competitiveness of the rail industry in the non-bulk freight market by systematically reviewing the reports generated by different stakeholders in the last ten years. The outcomes will assist the rail industry and government to understand impediments impacting on the quality of rail freight services that may lead to collaboration on decision-making and investment strategies.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to empirically evaluate the key impediments to the competitiveness of the rail sector in Australia; and second, to provide relevant transport management and policy recommendations for enhanced competitiveness.

This paper has adopted an empirical approach. A survey was developed and distributed among rail stakeholders in Australia. Accordingly, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to evaluate the key impeding areas.

This paper found four areas that are impeding rail development, these being infrastructure management, shortage of freight data and poor information sharing, service delivery and organisational and commercial interactions.

The theoretical approach of this thesis can be applied to any freight market where competition exists between different transport modes. However, the specific strategies provided in this research in terms of transportation management, infrastructure planning and policy were made according to the specific market condition, infrastructure quality and regulation that exist in Australia.

The findings provide important implications for both industry and government in terms of making transport planning and policy decisions, but also useful insights by identifying the weak parts of the rail sector and directions to target them.

The notion of the rail stakeholder does not appear to have been previously defined in the literature. Therefore, this research takes a broader view of rail stakeholders to include various interest groups within the rail sector and its operational environment.

In the mid‐1970s Mothercare decided to establish a new distribution centre and mail order warehouse; a number of alternative order picking systems were considered for the company's world‐wide mail order operation. This article examines the various alternatives and describes the system which was finally selected — a carousel storage and selection arrangement. Current performance statistics of the system are provided which are related to Mothercare's sales volumes.

A commonly suggested measure to make logistics greener is a shift to intermodal road‐rail transportation. Most research addresses the issue from the carrier's perspective, arguing for ways to improve the service production to better fit the shippers' demand. In this article the issue is addressed from the shipper's perspective. The purpose is to understand what contextual factors and operations changes that are possible and/or necessary for the shipper to make a fit to the current production system.

Six case companies selling non‐bulk, fast moving goods are examined. These firms have gone against the mainstream and shifted modes of transport. They are investigated through a multiple case‐study design.

The findings indicate that contextual factors stressed in the carrier‐focused literature, or rule of thumb decisions made by shipping logistics management, do not always clearly predict the success of a modal shift. However, some common denominators emerge among successful cases: large transport purchasing resources, high general carrier performance, low demand volatility, and centralized system control. The study also poses some propositions regarding the success of a modal shift.

The research is qualitative in nature and thus limited to the companies and their respective logistics systems. However, the models could be further evaluated empirically through quantitative and qualitative methods alike.

The paper poses a number of propositions of what constitutes a successful modal shift from a shipper's perspective, based on the identified factors and operational changes.

Previous research on the shift to intermodal road‐rail solutions are predominantly made from a carrier's perspective. This research addresses the issue from the shipper's perspective.

The maritime industry is one of the oldest international economic institutions still existing in the modern world. It can trace its beginnings in the West to as early as 3000 BC, with the Minoan civilization on the Isle of Crete. By 600 BC the Phoenicians had circumnavigated the African continent and established a fleet which was trading throughout the Mediterranean region. During the five millennia of its recorded history the industry has operated under a variety of market structures and organisational patterns. As the historical trading environment evolved the industry adapted its service operations to continue meeting world needs. It changed as the world changed. Therefore, it should not be too surprising to realise that the maritime industry is currently undergoing some basic structural alterations in keeping with world trends.

This paper was also presented at the Oyez/IBC conference entitled “The Computer in Road Transport Planning”, held in September of this year. Whilst at the conference, Terry Goldberg prefaced his presentation with the comment that it is difficult to define the depot operation as either Road Transport or Planning, so that it might be argued that his paper was something of a rogue elephant, considering the title of the conference. However, he concluded that the operation of depots is so clearly and closely related that no apology is required for its inclusion.

To illustrate the potential danger of applying “lean thinking” discretely and indiscriminantly in a project environment with high levels of complexity and uncertainty.

Insights are presented from two case studies of private residential construction projects which the authors believe are indicative of recent efforts to reduce the cost of construction activities.

Evidence was found of attempts to remove capacity in transportation, stockholding and on‐site labour. Some of these attempts were logical and resulted in cost‐savings but others were illogical and resulted in reduced levels of responsiveness and flexibility to respond to the uncertainty which is a characteristic of most construction projects.

Further research is required to quantify the impact of discrete improvements in functional aspects of supply chain projects and the conditions in which lean thinking can be put to best effect.

Firms operating in the construction sector need to pay greater attention to the impact on the effectiveness of supply chain projects of achieving cost savings in discrete activities.

This paper challenges conventional thinking with respect to the application of lean principles to the construction industry and calls for greater awareness of the project‐centric nature of the construction industry and the application of lean thinking therein.

Upon completion of the case study, students should be able to understand how changes in a macro environment affect the competitive landscape in an emerging market; acquire a granular understanding about the logistics industry in an emerging market and the various business models developed to service customer needs; determine the attractiveness and challenges of doing business in a fragmented but sunrise industry in an emerging market; and identify the drivers for growth and profitability in the logistics business.

Manisha Sharaf (she/her) and her co-founders conceived the idea of Truck Hall in 2011 to ride with the tide created by booming public investments in the infrastructure and transportation sector. Truck Hall aimed to improve the efficiency of the logistics industry in India by extensively using technology. However, the market research showed that technology-driven services in logistics faced many challenges owing to low internet penetration in the country, weak network connectivity during transportation and the low literacy rates of the truck drivers who were central to this industry. Between 2015 and 2018, Truck Hall experimented with several business models including load board, brokerage and integrated transporter with the sole purpose of achieving profitable growth in a highly fragmented industry with razor-thin margins. This case documented the dilemma faced by a startup in a high-growth but largely unorganized and unregulated industry in a developing economy. Should Truck Hall continue with the current business model of being a niche player or should it vertically integrate and control major segments of the value chain? Should it compromise on growth to become profitable or first scale up?

This case study can be used at the undergraduate, graduate and executive levels.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.