1. University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
Knowledge-enabled Access of Central Europe SMEs to Efficient Transnational Transport Solutions
Prof. Flavio Bonfatti
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
Department of Information Engineering
Italy

2. SME transnational transport problems
Limited contractual power
Small volumes
Infrequent transport flows
Non-saturated transport means
Scattered demand
Few packages at a time
On long and medium distances
Cumbersome paper-based documentation
A number of accompanying documents
In different formats and languages

3. KASSETTS research objectives
The KASSETTS project
Funded in the frame of the INTERREG Central Europe programme
Started in October 2008, lasting 36 months
New ICT services to support SMEs in this field
Demand aggregation and optimal route definition
Identification of the most convenient transport solution
Preparation, exchange and translation of transport-related documents
Through a network of intermediary logistic coordinators
Working at a regional scale, collaborating with each other
Involving manufacturing and distribution companies
Qualifying local transport service suppliers
Improvement potential on environment
+23% of average saturation index, -20% of kilometres

4. Research approach, methodology
Based on background projects
CORELOG: optimisation of logistic flows in the supply chain
MATAARI: optimisation of logistic flows in industrial districts
STIL: ICT services to promote on-line logistics at the regional scale
SEAMLESS: automatic translation of exchanges business documents
ENLoCC: promotion of the KASSETTS approach
A local experience to exploit and extend
The Logistic Broker, acting in the Modena province since May 2008
Some local manufacturing companies are involved
Six carriers are qualified as service suppliers
Twice a day planning of the aggregated demand

5. KASSETTS functional architecture
LOGISTIC BROKER
F C P
D O M
I C P
User Company
User
Company
Logistic Operator
Logistic
Operator
Transport request
Order confirmed
Mission accepted
Mission assigned
Region A
Region B

6. Operational scenarios
Regional scenarios (one broker involved)
Manufacturing company fleet planning
Small logistic operator fleet planning
Demand aggregation and planning
Offer matching
Demand matching
Import/export of documents from legacy systems
Trans-national scenarios (2 or more brokers involved)
Joint mission computation
Joint mission completion
Multilingual document exchange

7. Logistic Sector Ontology
The domain ontology
Logistic Sector Ontology
Focus on the knowledge exchanged between relevant actors
Ready in English, under translation into 7 EU languages
Czech, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Slovak
Built in OWL with an extension of PROTEGE
Facilitated web interface for term definition and translation
Export in XML format
Mapping between different XML formats with MAPFORCE ALTOVA
Automatic translation service

8. Conclusion and outlook
Ontology and application services are ready
Candidate brokers are identified
Pilot sites are being selected
In the first half of 2010 seven pilots will be running
And showing the benefits of interoperating with each other
Further steps
Now the focus is on regional and transnational road transport
Demand aggregation and optimisation pave the way towards inter-modality
Which now is typically out of the scope of the SME choices
Extending as much as possible the opportunity of electronic document exchange and translation

9. For further information
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Or contact
(scientific responsible)
(project manager)