Control and Monitoring in International Logistics Chains

In this paper, we introduce an approach to monitoring and control in the international movement of goods that builds on value chain modeling. The approach is taken from the accounting domain and adapted to application in supply chains and logistics chains. This approach is based on identifying equations that can be used to verify the accuracy and integrity of data in the supply or logistics chain. This enhances visibility, and will contribute to compliance in the international movement of goods. We introduce a case study of a retail company in the UK that ships containers from China to its warehouses in the UK. We obtained unique data from this chain, in which independent measurements were taken of the cargo volume in the containers. Based on the analysis of this data, we show that there is a considerable chance that recorded volumes on shipment documentation by manufacturers may be wrong. We show that the incorrect data follows patterns that can be detected, which provides a starting point for the development of analytical detection models.