The Physical Internet as an Approach for Resilient Logistics Practices: Literature Review and Future Research Avenues

Abstract

Current supply chain networks are unable to quickly react and reconfigure in face of unexpected disruption events. The Physical Internet is an emerging logistic paradigm that describes a reorganisation of logistics networks with the main goal to increase their efficiency, sustainability, reliability and resilience. Despite ongoing advancements in the Physical Internet literature, the aspect of resilience is rarely present in this concept. This paper aims to map the state-of-the-art for resilience in the Physical Internet and discuss future research avenues. Results indicate that the resilience aspect of the Physical Internet is almost untouched. The study contributes with a comprehensive summary of the reviewed literature, a classification based on the main identified research themes and approaches, as well as a thorough discussion of promising research avenues.