Supply Chain Management Report: Evaluating Freight Rail Article

This report provides a critical evaluation of an article discussing the future of freight rail and its implications for supply chain management. The article focuses on DB Cargo's implementation of GPS technology in freight wagons to enable real-time tracking, which enhances efficiency and reduces potential mishaps. The report highlights the importance of freight wagon quality, such as suspension and whisper brakes, for minimizing damage during transport. It draws on academic research to emphasize the significance of rail transport and the challenges of urban rail transit systems. The analysis explores the benefits of GPS for real-time tracking, improved consignment management, and identifying transportation issues. The report concludes that the integration of new technologies, like GPS, is essential for DB Cargo to provide better services and maintain a competitive edge in the supply chain management landscape.

Running head: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Supply chain management
Name of the student
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Introduction
In the current business scenario, logistics and supply chain management is one of the key
areas for consideration for the business organizations. This is due to the reason that, the more
effective will be the supply chain management, the more efficient will be the transportation of
the goods from one place to another. This will in turn enhance the effectiveness of the inbound
and outbound logistics of the business organizations. Different news articles are being published
regarding the development in the supply chain management and the initiation of the newer
technologies in the process. One of the most relevant articles being published in the recent time
is the article regarding the future of freight rail written by Charles Pauka in tandlnews. Critical
evaluation will be done over this article with the help of some other scholarly articles in order to
determine its relevancy.
Background of the article
The article talked about the initiation of the newer technologies in the freight rails by DB
cargo. This company is dealing the logistics solution to the business organizations. Recently,
they have started to retrofit their freight wagons with GPS technology. This technology is being
initiated by them in order to provide their customers the option to track the transportation process
in real time. Thus, it will help the organizations to have the idea about when they will get to
receive the consignment (www.tandlnews.com.au, 2018). On the other hand, it will also help DB
cargo in managing their freights effectively and reducing the chance of any mishaps in
transaction. In addition, this article has also discussed about some other facilities to be provided
in the freight wagons such as fitting of the whisper brakes in order to reduce the jerks in railroad.

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Enhancing the quality of the freight suspension
One of the key strengths being identified of this article is the discussion of an area, which
is given much less concentration in the logistic and supply chain management. In the majority of
the cases, articles regarding the supply chain management talks about the warehousing, software
to be used and training of the stakeholders. However, it is skipped in majority of the cases that
freight wagons and rail corridor is also an important factor in the logistics and supply chain
management. According to Petrovic, Bizic, Gasic, Savkovic and Gajic (2012), increasing the
quality of the suspension of the freight wagons will further increase the efficiency of the entire
logistic process. This is due to the reason that the more jerk free will is the process of the
transportation, the less will be the probability of damage of the consignment. In relation to this,
the fitment of the whisper brake by DB cargo will enhance the quality of the freight transport and
will reduce the damage of the consignment. In this case, it can be concluded that article
published in tandlnews has discussed about an important factor in the supply chain management.
Urban rail transit system
According to Ozturk and Patrick (2018), rail transport is one of the major factors to be
considered in the logistics and supply chain management. The authors have stated that
effectiveness and efficiency of the rail network will determine the effectiveness of the entire
process of the supply chain management. It is being discussed in this article that efficient freight
transport will ensure the swift and speedy delivery of the consignments. This is due to the reason
that having efficient freight transport system will help to increase the speed of the rail network.
On the other hand, this article also discussed about the concept of the urban rail transit system
and the difficulties with it. According to the authors, railways will face more difficulty with the

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initiation of the urban rail transit system. Therefore, in this case also, it can be concluded that
increasing the efficiency of the freight wagons will be more effective for the railways rather than
implementing the urban rail transit system.
Real time tracking of consignment
According to Gonzalez-Feliu, Pluvinet, Serouge and Gardrat (2013), initiation of the GPS
enabled devices in the distribution and logistics will ensure that consignment will be distributed
effectively and with having minimal amount of errors. This is due to the reason that, according to
the authors, with the help of the GPS technologies, all the associated stakeholders will get the
access to real time tracking of the movement of the consignment. Thus, both the consignor and
consignee will be able to track the movement of the goods and this will reduce the probability of
sending or distributing the wrong consignment to the wrong party. It is also being stated by the
authors that in the recent time, massive development in the digitalization is changing the
expectation of the customers and thus it is important for the transporters to initiate latest
technologies in accordance to that. In the case article of the DB Cargo, they have initiated the use
of the GPS technologies in their freight wagons. Thus, it can be concluded that initiation of the
new and latest technologies in the freight transport will help DB cargo to provide updated service
to their clients. It will also help them to enhance the level of satisfaction of their clients and to
stay ahead in the competition.
Identification of the issues during transportation
Joubert and Meintjes (2015) stated that using of the GPS technologies will help the
transporters to determine the entire transportation process. In addition, it will also help them to
identify whether there is any issues emerging in the transportation process. Thus, identification

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of the issues at their primary stage will help to prevent the amplification of their impacts. On the
other hand, DB cargo will get benefited from the initiation of the GP technologies in their freight
wagons. Therefore, they will be able to provide the most accurate and quality consignment to
their clients. It can be concluded that, discussion about the initiation of the GPS technologies in
the freight wagons is one of the most relevant factors in the current scenario of the supply chain
management and this article by Charles Pauka helped in determining the effectiveness of it.

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Reference
Dragan. P, Milan. B, Milomir. G, Mile. S, & Vladeta. G. (2012). Increasing the Efficiency of
Railway Transport by Improvement of Suspension of Freight Wagons. Promet
(Zagreb), 24(6), 487-493
Gonzalez-Feliu, J., Pluvinet, P., Serouge, M., & Gardrat, M. (2013). GPS-based data production
in urban freight distribution. IDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc, IDEAS Working
Paper Series from RePEc, 2013.
Joubert, J., & Meintjes, S. (2015). Repeatability & reproducibility: Implications of using GPS
data for freight activity chains. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 76, 81.
Ozturk, & Patrick. (2018). An optimization model for freight transport using urban rail
transit. European Journal of Operational Research, 267(3), 1110-1121.
www.tandlnews.com.au. (2018). Tranpost & Logistics News. Retrieved 17 March 2018, from
https://www.tandlnews.com.au/2018/03/02/article/future-freight-rail/

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Appendix
Link: https://www.tandlnews.com.au/2018/03/02/article/future-freight-rail/