Managing an integrated supply chain: Report on site visit Lyon Terminal

Résumé du document

Lyon Terminal is a public limited company and specializes in port handling and heavy lifts, which was created in 1993 and located at the port of Lyon, Edouard Herriot. It is a subsidiary of Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (CNR) who owns 64.08% of the share capital. And it is also owned by the other three companies share capital is depicted.

As the most important entrance of Southern Europe, the river Rhône and Lyon Terminal have highlighted their significant positions. In 2006, Lyon Terminal handled about 204,000 containers (TEU) and 1,350,000 tones of cargo of all modes of transport. Its objective was to reach 300,000 containers in 2007.

Terminal n°1 was the first site operated by Managing an integrated Supply Chain y Lyon Terminal since 1993. And in 2005 CNR began to build a second terminal to satisfy the increasing request for services of handling. Now, after the implementation of the Terminal n°2, its activity will specialize in railroads, heavy parcels and general cargo.

Extraits

[...] These systems are to ensure all the materials are available for operation and delivery containers in time to the destinations of Northern, Eastern or Southern Europe. It can also maintain the lowest possible level of warehousing and to plan other logistic management activities and delivery schedules How the operations function Global vision On a global vision, containers are generally carrying from the port of Fos- sur-Mer (Marseille) by river boats until Lyon. Then, they arrived at Lyon Terminal, where they are unloaded. Containers are generally stocked on the storage areas until they are loaded on trucks or trains. [...]

[...] Drivers are in charge to verify the lead number of the container before leaving Lyon Terminal. Graph: containers shipped from the river boats, and loaded on the dock; the truck will lift the specific container according to the registration number in a specific area. We can sum up all the different operations through the following scheme: Means at this step, there is an operation (manual or automatic) in the system Storage, custom and security questions Because it as a very important part of the supply chain of a firm, and because Lyon Terminal has to show the example, they try to manage perfectly the storage. [...]

[...] It also integrates more rail tracks ( 2.000 meters instead of 1.200 for Terminal It comes from the fact that one of the strategic objective of Lyon Terminal is to increase the river/rail connections. Other difference between Terminal and Terminal is a more accurate security. Actually, trucks, which come to be loaded or unloaded, do not enter on to the park. They stay behind a small wall, above which the forklift truck operator passes and drops the container on the truck. There also another barrier at the entry of the park and each driver, after he has passed trough the first check point, must be controlled once again. [...]

[...] This seriously affects the ports in France and the transportation of goods in the country. Graph: How to load the containers on the river boat 6. What did you find positive We found really positive that transportation on river is significantly cheaper than train or truck transportation. This allows them to compete against other means of transportation that are more expensive, but sometimes they make up this difference in price, providing a faster and more flexible transportation of the goods. [...]

[...] Moreover, in international transport, custom questions have an important role to play. Because they are customer oriented, Lyon Terminal hires a specific person to deal with this particular question. Then, the customer does not need to organize that part of the supply chain. Finally, goods carried in containers must be secured. Lyon Terminal answers to the American ISPS norms about security. Furthermore, only the person in charge of customs know what is inside containers and the most valuable ones are stocked above the others, to prevent robberies Specificity of Terminal number 2 Terminal has opened at the end of 2006 and it has benefited from corrections of Terminal n°1's drawbacks. [...]