The logistics sector faces significant challenges: the now chronic shortage of drivers, the urgent demand for dedicated freight spaces, particularly in complex urban environments, and the difficulties that rail transport encounters in meeting the demands of an increasingly exacting and “capricious” logistics chain. In recent years, Europe and North America have believed that to sustain economic growth, it is imperative to “do more with less,” meaning optimizing available resources in the face of limited transport capacity and space. Although the vision of digital, integrated, cooperative, and automated logistics systems, called “Physical Internet,” originated in Western countries, Japan and China – until now – seemed to have accelerated the path towards its realization. “Seemed” because in early July, in Rome, the activities of the European IKIGAI project were formally launched, whose ambition is to decode the real problems of logistics towards the scalability of innovative solutions, giving a significant boost to the sector in terms of the European continent’s competitiveness.
The Revolutionary Concept of the Physical Internet
The Physical Internet (PI) is a revolutionary vision that aims to create a parallel between data networks on the web and the flow of goods along logistics chains. With PI, the logistics chain is completely automated, and goods travel through complex networks using various standardized transport units, smart hubs, and shared real-time data. Maximizing operational efficiency and minimizing environmental impact are the two main objectives of PI, making freight flows fluid, sustainable, and intelligent.
The Global Race for Innovation
Today, the realization of PI has gained broad global consensus. In Japan, the shortage of truck drivers and limited storage space have become critical obstacles to economic growth. In response to this problem, the Japanese government has launched an urgent national strategy for PI implementation, and to fully digitize information, with a data ecosystem to optimize transport and storage. An important first step was the imposition on companies to appoint Chief Logistics Officers (CLOs). In a few months, over 23,000 logistics executives have been tasked with accelerating digital collaboration along the supply chain. Furthermore, eighty manufacturing companies have already joined the initiative, sharing their data for greater efficiency.
Meanwhile, China aims to lead the global standardization of logistics innovation. It currently chairs an ISO committee dedicated to the topic, which will define the basis and criteria for what can be classified as “Physical Internet.” This strategic position places China at the forefront of the movement.
IKIGAI: Europe’s Coordinated Response
IKIGAI is Europe’s coordinated response to this global change. The project, co-financed by the European Union, brings together leading partners from across the continent. FIT Consulting, a leading SME in the development of innovative measures and solutions in the industrial logistics sector, is the leader of the Consortium composed of over thirty excellent partners from the industrial, academic, and associative worlds.
Over the next 42 months, IKIGAI will demonstrate innovative logistics solutions aimed at streamlining processes and procedures towards a supply chain based on the principles of the European Physical Internet. The solutions include digital matchmaking platforms to connect shippers, freight forwarders, and carriers, the creation of smart urban logistics hubs for the use of zero-emission vehicles, a transparent emission tracking system along supply chains, the development of reusable modular containers with universal standards, and the implementation of collaborative warehousing and last-mile delivery solutions. Some “pillar” innovations of the project are implemented with the support of strategic partners responsible for their implementation. These include: Gruber Logistics, a leading logistics company and pioneer in sector innovation; GS1, a neutral, non-profit organization that develops and maintains the most widely used global standards for business communication; ALICE (Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe), the European technology platform on logistics that, with over 200 members in the sector, promotes innovation and collaboration in logistics and supply chains; CERTH, a non-profit company specializing in technological innovation for research and development; and SMART Freight Centre, an independent non-profit organization that provides the worldwide methodological basis for calculating transport emissions, INLECOM, a Greece-based tech company particularly involved in research and development projects, PNO, a leading company in urban logistics planning and innovation, and ICCS, Institute of Communication and Computer Systems.
“While a race for the modernization of the logistics sector is underway, the IKIGAI project has already put all its cards on the table to position Europe at the forefront of change, but also, and above all, to overcome the concept of global challenge by creating collaborative bridges with ongoing initiatives in other continents” says Paola Cossu, project coordinator and FIT consulting CEO. The Rome meeting saw the direct participation of professionals from Japan and the United States, and ALICE, on behalf of the project, is now a member of the ISO committee for logistics innovation led by China.
