Roel Gevaers’ Post

Today was an exciting day full of real-life logistics showcases. - In the morning, I brought together with students from HKMU Business School - who are on a lecture visit at the Antwerp Management School for 2 weeks - a visit to DSV - Global Transport and Logistics at Brussels Airport as part of the supply chain crash course that Prof. Wouter Dewulf and myself are lecturing today and tomorrow to them. The students could see the warehouse activities at DSV - Global Transport and Logistics in real life. They also got a very interesting presentation from Koen Somers about the supply chain network of DSV and how small worldwide disruptions can impact the whole supply chain of a company. Many thanks 🙏 to Koen Somers and Kristof De Decker for offering us this opportunity! - In the afternoon, I was proud as chair of the #VIAVIA Taskforce Sustainable Urban 🏙 🚛 Logistics that we could bring together approximately 100 stakeholders of urban logistics for the event: "Showcase event: Sustainable urban logistics in practice" to speak about do's and dont's in urban logistics, the opportunities but also the pitfalls, the policy of the Vlaamse overheid, etc. And last but not least the event concluded with a zero-emission vehicles and trucks expo. As I always say: Urban logistics is more than only parcels. Hence, for every flow that goes in or out of a city, a zero-emission vehicle was represented: cargo bikes, vans, a city trailer, a refrigerated truck, a 40+ tonnes truck, and a construction truck. The aim of today was to show which technologies are available nowadays when speaking about zero-emission city logistics and I think we can speak of a successful demoday/expo. As Chair, I would like to thank 🙏 everybody involved: Ansfrid Vanlerberghe from DHL Express, Sven Geysels, Stefan Bottu and Liesbeth Geysels from VIL Flanders Innovation Cluster for Logistics/LOGIVILLE, Dirk Van Peteghem from VPD Transport & Logistics, Dries Roelens from Colruyt Group, Veerle De Meyer from Mechelen, Minister Lydia Peeters of Vlaamse overheid, Filip Boelaert of Departement Mobiliteit en Openbare Werken, Serge Gregoir and EUTRACO, Pieter Thienpont and Volvo Trucks, ... Hence, a busy day but a day full of real-life logistics to show to the world. University of Antwerp / University of Antwerp - Faculty of Business and Economics / Department of Transport and Regional Economics TPR / C-MAT - MSc in Maritime/Air Transport Management / A. Rahim Massoud

It's always a bit special and challenging to give an interview for a news broadcast with more than 6 million viewers in full primetime... But honestly, I felt a bit proud that I was contacted via Peter De Meyer by the French Television 📺 station #France2 on Friday to describe the import flow of Chinese electric cars to #Europe. It is always nice that they ask supply chain insights from a "little 🇧🇪 Belgian" from the University of Antwerp / Antwerp Management School about this topic. This question was part of a larger TV report about the high level of "inventory" of Chinese 🇨🇳 cars in European Ports, like the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. Link: https://lnkd.in/ezsvky4C I explained that many Chinese car 🚘 manufacturers (Polestar, Lynk & Co, BYD, Zeekr Europe, #MG, #GWM, NIO, #SAIC, etc.) use an eCommerce 💻 supply chain model for car imports. Instead of using a wide network of dealers to distribute cars to, and hence use a #decentralized inventory model with a "short last mile", many Chinese car manufacturers do not have these wide dealer networks (as they sell a significant amount online), which implies they use a #centralized supply chain model: all inventory on 1 location with a "long last mile". Not only Chinese manufacturers are using this supply chain model, also Tesla is using it. This means as well that as from the moment a small "dip" occurs in sales, the central inventory location immediately has a surplus of cars, what you see now in many seaports in #Europe. My explanation to the interviewer was almost a copy💡 of my introduction lecture in most of my supply chain lectures at University of Antwerp / University of Antwerp - Faculty of Business and Economics / Department of Transport and Regional Economics TPR / Antwerp Management School / C-MAT - MSc in Maritime/Air Transport Management: I always use the example of car supply chains to show the difference between central inventory systems and decentralized inventory systems by focussing on the difference between "traditional car dealer networks" versus "new online centralized networks". A trend for European 🇪🇺 car manufacturers to keep in mind: they are adapting but not at the speed the Chinese manufacturers and Tesla are doing... Also an attention point for the European Commission. #ecommerce, #lastmiledistribution , #supplychainmanagement

Last week, Wouter Dewulf, Frank Van Gelder, Aleksandra Jovic and myself enjoyed 3 fruitful and exciting days in the Dallas Fort Worth area to align on the 4th edition of the #PharmaLogisticsMasterclass. During these 3 days we had great meetings with Milton De La Paz, Karen Herberger C.M., Kathleen Otto-Rosenblum, Brian Sauser, Gabriela Mustata Wilson, PhD, MSc, FHIMSS, SNAI, FIAHSI, Bill Eisele, and many more. This edition is a collaboration between University of Antwerp - Faculty of Business and Economics/Department of Transport and Regional Economics TPR , Pharma.Aero, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), University of North Texas, The University of Texas at Arlington and BioNTX. The Program is almost finalized: - Sunday Sept. 29th: 🍸 Formal opening Reception (evening) - Monday Sept. 30th: Setting The Scene + Synchomodality 🚢 - Tuesday Oct. 1st: 🆕 Ethics, Regulations and risk & New Business Models - Wednesday Oct. 2nd: Data technology + Industry Visits - Thursday Oct. 3rd: Point of care & Last Mile 🚛 + Closing remarks + Galadiner and certificates ceremony. To ensure that our #PLMC stays a Masterclass and not a large conference, we have decided to cap the registration at 150. Now - still 5 months before the Masterclass - 80 people have already registered; hence, do not wait too long if you want to register. Registration is possible via: https://lnkd.in/eQnpRdpY The Masterclass venue is Pegasus Park (a University innovation incubator focussing on pharma and biolabs) + the University of North Texas. The Masterclass Hotel is the Renaissance Dallas Hotel. Confirmed speakers and experts: Koen Vandenbempt, Pierre Van Damme, Ruud van der Geer, Tom O'Brien, Seckin Ozkul, Vincent Van Bockstaele, Stijn Michielsen, Katrien Storms, Wim Vanhaverbeke, Chonchol Gupta, Roland Yap EdD MEMDT MBCC EMLSI MPPM MEd MA Harvard-Oxbridge-Wharton-Stanford Exec Prog Alumni, Trevor Caswell, Serhat Yüksel,... Confirmed companies: Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), BioNTX, JAS Worldwide, Brussels Airport, Novartis, MSD, Johnson & Johnson, Envirotainer, Cold Chain Technologies, Etihad, and many more See you at the #PLMC2024!

On Friday I was invited to present at the "Economy Education Day 2024" (Dag van het Economie Onderwijs) organized by the Centrum Nascholing Onderwijs - UAntwerpen. 🚢 🚚 The day's topic was "Port of Antwerp-Bruges: a logistics challenge between port and hinterland". Dean Prof. Koen Vandenbempt welcomed approximately 80 secondary school teachers at the beautiful City campus of the University of Antwerp / University of Antwerp - Faculty of Business and Economics for this full day of lectures and workshops about ports, logistics, supply chain and last but not least #eCommerce & Last Mile logistics. Many experts presented during the day: like Jurgen Lefere (PSA International) and Johan Van Daele (MSC PSA European Terminal), colleague Prof. Thierry Vanelslander (Department of Transport and Regional Economics TPR / C-MAT - MSc in Maritime/Air Transport Management / Antwerp Management School ), Chair of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges: Annick De Ridder and myself. 🖥 My presentation was about - guess what: "Unknown and unloved but very popular: "The eCommerce last mile". How a parcel gets to your door". Hence about #eCommerce, #lastmiledistribution and #ecosystems. The topics I spoke about: 1 - eCommerce started growing mainly from 2005 after failed attempts since the mid-1990s; 2 - Due to the "addition" of the last mile: extra and HUGE costs added to the logistics chain: "The Last mile problems" since 2005; 3 - First focus was on Parcel market, then also food, Pharma, etc; 4 - Heavily volume-driven market: strong competition in the parcels market; 5 - Due to increase of volumes: Formation of large eCommerce companies that become "eCosystems"; 6 - And these eCosystems structurally occupy more parts of the supply chain or "value chain"; 7 - Not just parcels and road transport, also maritime flows and aviation become part of eCosystems; 8 - And: It's all about DATA!!! I also explained the supply chain business models behind bol, Amazon, Alibaba Group, etc. I think it was a huge opportunity to show economy secondary school teachers that economy and business is not only accounting, financials, marketing or sales, but also #Ports, #airports, #Transport, #SupplyChains and #lastmile distribution! => No logistics is NO PRODUCTS was the message also. With this inspiration day, I also hope to see more Transport and supply chain topics taken into secondary school classes at schools of Vlaamse overheid / Ministry of Education and Training. And if students are interested in Economics + Supply chains and logistics: 1 Faculty: University of Antwerp - Faculty of Business and Economics!