The project is an attempt to create a data driven story representing the performance of logistics services of different nations across the world. Logistics services and supply chain form an integral part of ensuring smooth operations and growing of any business. It is the logistics services that help to meet the needs of the company in time, if managed properly.
Earlier, logistics was just an operational part for a business. However, with the growing digitalization, and revolution in business strategies and trends, logistics services has been a part of the research and development for a company. Different logistics models are used with people expertise in logistics and transportation, to plan the move in and move out of the products not only within the country but internationally too.
This project focusses on different KPIs to evaluate the logistics performance of the countries for the time period of over a decade (2007-2018) and demonstrates different visualizations pertaining to the datasets for respective KPIs. Following is the list of KPIs considered for this study.
This study has been conducted on the basis of some key performance indicators that determine the logistics operations and services for a country. A brief description of each of the indicators considered has been given below. It also lists the unit of measure for the respective indicator.
1. Ability to track and trace the shipments: This signifies the efficiency with which every shipment is tracked and traced by the logistics operators. This deals with the accuracy of the digitalization in the logistics. The ability is graded on the scale of 1-5, with 5 being the very high ability to track the consignment in the market during shipping.
2. Efficiency of customs clearance: This indicator tells about the efficiency of customs clearance for the particular nation. Often, a lot of consignments are stuck up for customs verification and clearance which affects the delivery of the consignment. The indicator tells which countries have smooth and efficient customs clearance operations (speed, simplicity, predictability) on the scale of 1-5, with 5 being very highly efficient.
3. Lead time for international export: This focusses on the lead time for any international shipment. Lead time to export is the median time (the value for 50 percent of shipments) from shipment point to port of loading. The measure of this indicator is in the number of days.
4. Lead time for international import: This focusses on the lead time for any international shipment. Lead time to import is the median time (the value for 50 percent of shipments) from port of discharge to arrival at the consignee. The measure of this indicator is in the number of days.
5. Quality of logistics services: Quality of the logistics services is pivotal in the smoothness of the logistics operations. This indicator signifies the overall level of competence and quality of logistics services (e.g. transport operators, customs brokers), on a rating ranging from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high).
6. Logistics Performance Index Overall: This helps to evaluate the overall performance of the logistics services considering all the essential indicators. Logistics Performance Index overall score reflects perceptions of a country's logistics based on efficiency of customs clearance process, quality of trade- and transport-related infrastructure, ease of arranging competitively priced shipments, quality of logistics services, ability to track and trace consignments, and frequency with which shipments reach the consignee within the scheduled time. The index ranges from 1 to 5, with a higher score representing better performance on a scale from 1 (worst) to 5 (best).
7. Shipments reaching the consignee within the scheduled time: Respondents assessed how often the shipments to assessed markets reach the consignee within the scheduled or expected delivery time, on a rating ranging from 1 (hardly ever) to 5 (nearly always).
8. Ease of arranging competitively priced shipments: At times, arranging competitively priced shipments in the market is challenging and complex. Respondents assessed the ease of arranging competitively priced shipments to markets, on a rating ranging from 1 (very difficult) to 5 (very easy).
This is a short video to emphasize the trends in the logistics and supply chain industry. The video besides describes how Amazon is coming up with reformations in global logistics services to build a better, visible, efficient and resilient logistics system to ensure business growth and stability. With AI and Machine Learning making their way to optimize and improve the business operations, logistics and supply chain have a lot potential in leveraging these technologies for better customer service and operations management. The study ahead walks us through the performance of the countries and the regions in managing the global logistics and operations.
The map besides is a display of the logistics performance index overall on the basis of the data in the year 2018. The latest data shows the classification of the countries with better overall logistics performance. The index for each country is shown in the map. It is observed that the region of North America has been the best performer for 2018. The African region has a poor logistics performance as compared to the other regions. Germany, Sweden, Finland and Netherlands in European region have shown a distinguished performance in 2018 regarding the overall logistics performance index. Afghanistan has the lowest index.
The representation of the quality of the logistics services region wise is displayed. The global operations take place with 7 classified regions. North America, Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. The data considered for this projection is from year 2016 and 2018, where a weighted mean average is taken to grade the performance value. North America dominates the quality of the logistics services with a value of 3.91 on 5, while Sub-Saharan Africa has the least performance with a value of 2.39
The line chart race has been displayed to see the trend in the lead time for international imports of certain countries. The countries selected for this display are Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America. The curve rising upwards shows the better performance. China, Canada, Italy have shown a decline in the performance, taking more days for imports. Australia, United States of America, India have taken lesser time for imports, over the period from 2014 to 2016. The chart also ranks the countries according to the performance.
The customs clearance process is pivotal in ensuring better logistics performance since a lot of shipments get stuck up in the customs. A study for some of the countries' customs clearance process reveals their trend in the customs department. This may mean that the country is investing more in customs to et the shipments checked as early and efficiently as possible, to further smoothen the logistics path. The projections show that Australia has been working more on its customs processes for last few years which shows an increment in their index. Germany dominates this department over the years with highest index and keeping it steady. On the other hand, United Kingdom and India need to work more in their customs clearance, to get it more efficient. Their index has dropped drastically. A call for their government to focus more into customs!
The scatter plot shows how the quality of logistics services affects the scheduled delivery to the consignee. Clearly the variables share a directly proportional relationship. Better the quality of logistics services, better is the chance that the shipment is delivered in time. A region based classification is taken into consideration; Europe and Central Asian countries dominate both the variables with a distinguished performance! Latin American and Caribbean region as well as Sub-Saharan African countries have struggled in managing the quality of logistics and thus fail to deliver the consignments in time.
The stacked bar graph shows the lead time for exports from the country. This gives the insights about the export operations from the logistics carriers of the country and their efficiency. The trend shows that Australia has proved to be efficient in reducing their lead time for exports, indicating that a lot of work has been done in the international exports. Russian Federation on other hand seems to have delayed exports operations with a trend of increasing lead time.
The scatter plot shows an import-export performance of the countries for the year 2014, 2016 and 2018. This helps to understand which of the countries have done better to improve their import lead time or export lead time or both.
The trend shows the performance of the regions in tracking the consignments in the market. Better tracking ability may relate to better digitalization in the logistics services, better visibility in the logistics and supply chain. The chart shows which regions are working more to make their logistics better, efficient, resilient and visible. With the growing changes in the market, it is important that the logistics and supply chain is more visible to ensure smooth, fast and accurate flow of information.
The world map shows which countries are better in arranging competitively priced shipments in the market. Often arrangement of such consignments is challenging and involves complex operations. A display of which countries are better in managing such shipments.
Region of North America and a few countries from Europe have a distinguished overall logistics performance in 2018 as compared to other regions.
Quality of logistics services is superior in North America followed by Europe and Central Asia, with Sub-Sahara African region at the bottom. The African countries need to inspect and improve their logistics for better growth.
Countries of Australia, India and United States of America have focused on their import lead times to cut down the time for import which foster better business growth. China, Italy, Canada project a decline in their performance with respect to previous years.
Germany dominates the customs clearance operations with a stable index, while United Kingdom and India need to focus on their customs operations to make logistics better.
Quality of logistics services is directly proportional to the scheduled delivery of the consignment. Europe and Central Asia countries have an exceptional display in this, with Latin American and Caribbean nations and African nations struggling with the on-time delivery.
North America proves to build a strong, visible and digitalized logistics system as compared to the other regions. Europe and Central Asia has a steady work in this sector, with a high potential to capitalize. Other regions should try to join the revolution in logistics to make it resilient and more visible.
Data are from Logistics Performance Index surveys conducted by the World Bank in partnership with academic and international institutions and private companies and individuals engaged in international logistics. The round of surveys covered more than 5,000 country assessments by nearly 1,000 international freight forwarders. Respondents evaluate eight markets on six core dimensions on a scale from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). The markets are chosen based on the most important export and import markets of the respondent's country, random selection, and, for landlocked countries, neighboring countries that connect them with international markets. Details of the survey methodology are in Arvis and others' Connecting to Compete 2010: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy (2010).
Detailed datasets at: https://data.worldbank.org
World Bank and Turku School of Economics, Logistic Performance Index Surveys. Data are available online at : worldbank.org/lpi.