Physical Internet Manifesto

Transforming the way physical objects

are handled, moved, stored, realized, supplied and used,
aiming towards global logistics efficiency and sustainability

Professor Benoit Montreuil

Canada Research Chair in Enterprise Engineering
CIRRELT Interuniversity Research Center
on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation
Laval University, Québec, Canada

Version 1.10.1: 2012-04-05

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
2012-04-05, 1/72
 Acknowledgements
The Physical Internet Manifesto has greatly benefited from
the contribution of esteemed colleagues
America
CIRRELT Research Center:
• Teodor Crainic - UQAM
• Michel Gendreau - Université de Montréal
• Olivier Labarthe, Mustapha Lounès & Jacques Renaud - Université Laval
CICMHE, College-Industry Council for Material Handling Education:
• Russ Meller – University of Arkansas
• Kevin Gue & Jeff Smith – Auburn University
• Kimberley Ellis – Virginia Tech
• Leon McGinnis – Georgia Tech
• Mike Ogle – MHIA
Europe
• Éric Ballot, Frédéric Fontane – Mines ParisTech
• Rémy Glardon – EPFL
• Rene De Koster – Erasmus University
• Detlef Spee – Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistic

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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 Macroscopic Positioning
CLAIM
The way physical objects are
moved, handled, stored, realized, supplied and used
throughout the world
is neither efficient nor sustainable
economically, environmentally and socially
GOAL
Enabling the global efficiency and sustainability
of physical object movement, handling, storage, realization, supply & usage
VISION
Evolving towards a worldwide Physical Internet

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
2012-04-05, 3/72
Inspiration for the Physical Internet Vision

• A great front page one-liner

– Interesting yet mainstream supply chain articles
– Nothing like what I perceived
a Physical Internet should be
• I rapidly got passionate about the question
What should or could be a full blown
Physical Internet?
– What would be its key features?
– What capabilities would it offer that are not
achievable today?
• Another question surfaced rapidly:
Why would we need a Physical Internet?

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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 Why Do we need a Physical Internet ?

Logistics inefficiency and unsustainability

claim

The way physical objects are

moved, handled, stored, realized, supplied and used
throughout the world is inefficient and unsustainable
economically, environmentally and socially

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
2012-04-05, 5/72
 Why do we need to change ?

Logistics inefficiency and unsustainability

ECONOMIC
Logistics: 10-20% burden on GDP of most countries
The worldwide logistics cost grows faster than world trade
ENVIRONMENT
One of the heaviest polluters, energy consumer and greenhouse gas generators
Growing negative contribution while nations’ goals aims for heavy reductions
SOCIAL
Lack of fast, reliable and affordable accessibility and mobility
of physical objects for the vast majority of the world’s population
Too often precarious logistic work conditions

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Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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 Inefficiency and unsustainability symptoms
Leading Us Toward Hitting the Wall Real Hard

1. We are shipping air and packaging

2. Empty travel is the norm rather than the exception
3. Truckers have become the modern cowboys
4. Products mostly sit idle, stored where unneeded,
yet so often unavailable fast where needed
5. Production and storage facilities are poorly used
6. So many products are never sold, never used
7. Products do not reach those who need them the most
8. Products unnecessarily move, crisscrossing the world
9. Fast & reliable multimodal transport is a dream or a joke
10. Getting products in and out of cities is a nightmare
11. Networks are neither secure nor robust
12. Smart automation & technology are hard to justify
13. Innovation is strangled
Montreuil B. (2011) Towards a Physical Internet: Meeting the Global Logistics Sustainability Grand Challenge, Logistics Research,
currently available as online publication, 2011-02-12, http://www.springerlink.com/content/g362448hw8586774/fulltext.pdf

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Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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Logistics inefficiency and unsustainability symptoms
Leading Us Toward Hitting the Wall Real Hard

1. We are shipping air and packaging

– Trucks and containers are often half empty at departure,
with a large chunk of
the non-emptiness being filled by packaging
2. Empty travel is the norm rather than the exception
– Vehicles and containers often return empty,
or travel extra routes to find return shipments
– Loaded vehicles get emptier and emptier as their route
unfolds from delivery point to delivery point
3. Truckers have become the modern cowboys
– So many are always on the road,
so often away from home for long durations
– Their family and social life is precarious,
as well as their personal health
– In general, logistic operators and material handling
personnel have similar precarious positions

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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Logistics inefficiency and unsustainability symptoms
Leading Us Toward Hitting the Wall Real Hard

4. Products mostly sit idle,

stored where unneeded, yet so often unavailable
fast where needed
– Manufacturers, distributors, retailers and users
are all storing products, often in vast quantities
through their networks of warehouses and
distribution centers,
yet service levels and response times to local users are
constraining and unreliable
5. Production and storage facilities
are poorly or badly used
– Most businesses invest in storage and/or production
facilities which are lowly used
most of the times, or yet badly used,
dealing with products which
would better be dealt elsewhere,
forcing a lot of unnecessary travel

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Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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Logistics inefficiency and unsustainability symptoms
Leading Us Toward Hitting the Wall Real Hard

6. So many products are never sold, never used

– A significant portion of consumer products that are
made never reach the right market on time, ending up
unsold and unused while there would have been
Rusting new cars in disused airfield required elsewhere

7. Products do not reach those

who need them the most
– This is specially true in less developed countries and
disaster-crisis zones

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Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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Logistics inefficiency and unsustainability symptoms
Leading Us Toward Hitting the Wall Real Hard

8. Products unnecessarily move,

crisscrossing the world
– Products commonly travel
thousands of miles-kilometers
which could have been avoided
by making or assembling it
much nearer to point of use

9. Fast & reliable multimodal transport

is a dream or a joke
– Even though there are great examples, in
general synchronization is so poor,
interfaces so badly designed,
that multimodal routes are most often
time and cost inefficient and risky

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Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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Logistics inefficiency and unsustainability symptoms
Leading Us Toward Hitting the Wall Real Hard

10. Getting products in and out of cities

is a nightmare
– Most cities are not designed and equipped
for easing freight transportation, handling and
storage,
making the feeding of businesses and users in cities a
nightmare

11. Networks are neither secure nor robust

– There is extreme concentration of operations in a
limited number of centralized production and
distribution facilities, with travel along
a narrow set of high-traffic route
– This makes the logistic networks and supply chains of
so many businesses, unsecure in face of robbery and
terrorism acts, and not robust
in face of natural disasters and demand crises

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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Logistics inefficiency and unsustainability symptoms
Leading Us Toward Hitting the Wall Real Hard

12. Smart automation & technology

are hard to justify
– Vehicles, handling systems and operational facilities
have to deal with so many types of materials, shapes
and unit loads, with each player independently and
locally deciding on his piece of the pie
– Hard to justify smart connective (e.g. RFID)
technologies, systemic handling and transport
automation, as well as smart collaborative piloting
software

13. Innovation is strangled

– Innovation is bottlenecked by lack of generic standards
& protocols, transparency, modularity and systemic
open infrastructure
– This makes breakthrough innovation so tough,
justifying a focus on marginal epsilon innovation

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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Mapping inefficiency & unsustainability symptoms
to economical, environmental and societal facets

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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 Eliciting the Overall Goal Toward
Global Logistics Efficiency and Sustainability
Environmental goal
Sustainably reduce by an order of magnitude the logistics-induced
global greenhouse gas emission, energy consumption and pollution

Economic goal
Sustainably reduce by an order of magnitude
the global economic burden of logistics
while unlocking huge gains in business productivity

Societal goal
Sustainably and significantly increase the quality of life
of the logistics workers and the world’s population
by improving the timely accessibility and mobility of physical objects
Note: Logistics is hereafter used in its broad sense notably including transportation, handling, storage,
supply, realization (production, assembly, finishing, personalizing, recycling) and usage

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

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 The Digital Internet
Exploiting the Information Highway Metaphor
Decades ago the information & communications technology community
was stuck in a huge inefficient and unsustainable tangle
due to millions of unconnected computers
When looking for a way
to conceptualize how it should transform itself,
it relied on a physical transport and logistics metaphor:
Building the information highway

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Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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 The Digital Internet
Expanding Beyond the Information Highway Metaphor
They have achieved their goal and went farther,
reshaping completely the way
digital computing and communication are now performed
They have invented the Internet, leading the way to the World-Wide Web
They have enabled the building of
an open distributed networked infrastructure
that is currently revolutionizing
so many facets of our societal and economic reality

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Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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 The Essence of the Digital Internet

The Digital Internet is about

the interconnection between networks
in a way transparent for the user,
so allowing the transmission of
formatted data packets
in a standard way
permitting them to transit through
heterogeneous equipment
respecting the TCP/IP protocol

References: Kurose J., Ross K. and Wesley A. “Computer Networking: A Top Down Approach Featuring the Internet”, 3rd edition., July 2004.
Parziale L., Britt D.T., Davis C., Forrester J., Liu W., Matthews C. and Rosselot N. “TCP-IP Tutorial and Technical Overview”, 2006. http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/gg243376.pdf
“Interconnection of access networks, MANs and WANs “, http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.exfo.com/

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 How do we propose to meet
the Logistics Grand Challenge?
The Physical Internet Initiative
Using the Digital Internet as a Metaphor for the Physical World

Even though there are fundamental differences

between the physical world and the information world,
the Physical Internet initiative
aims to exploit the Internet metaphor
so as to propose a vision for
a sustainable and progressively deployable
breakthrough solution
to global problems associated with the way
we move, handle, store, realize, supply and use
physical objects all around the world
Montreuil B. (2011) Towards a Physical Internet: Meeting the Global Logistics Sustainability Grand Challenge, Logistics Research,
currently available as online publication, 2011-02-12, http://www.springerlink.com/content/g362448hw8586774/fulltext.pdf

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 Exposing Key Features
of the Physical Internet Vision

Evolving towards a worldwide Physical Internet

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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 What is the Physical Internet?

An open global logistics system

based on the physical, digital and operational
interconnectivity
enabled by
the encapsulation, protocols and interfaces

Physical Internet: PI, π

Current version of a working definition for the Physical Internet, jointly developed by Benoit Montreuil, Eric Ballot and Russ Meller

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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 Positioning the Physical Internet
World Wide Web (WWW)
Digital Internet
Digital information Packets

Smart Grid
Connecting Physical objects through WWW
Energy
Internet of Things Internet
Smart Networked Objects
Energy Packets
Open Supply Web
Physical Internet
Smart Physical Packets

Original schematics from Benoit Montreuil, 2010, Physical Internet Manifesto, www.physicalinternetinitiative.org

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 Key Features
of the Physical Internet Vision
1. Aim toward universal interconnectivity
2. Aim for a unified multi-scale conceptual framework
3. Aim for webbed reliability and resilience of networks
4. Encapsulate merchandises in world-standard green modular containers
5. Evolve from material to container handling & storage systems
6. Exploit smart networked containers embedding smart objects
7. Activate and exploit an open global mobility web
8. Activate and exploit an open global supply web
9. Deploy capability certifications and open performance monitoring
10. Design products fitting containers with minimal space waste
11. Minimize physical moves and storages by digitally transmitting knowledge
and materializing products as locally as possible
12. Stimulate business model innovation
13. Enable open infrastructural innovation
Montreuil B. (2011) Towards a Physical Internet: Meeting the Global Logistics Sustainability Grand Challenge, Logistics Research,
currently available as online publication, 2011-02-12, http://www.springerlink.com/content/g362448hw8586774/fulltext.pdf

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 What are the design aims of the Physical Internet?

1. Aim toward universal interconnectivity

High-performance logistic centers, movers and systems,

making it fast, cheap, easy and reliable
to interconnect physical objects
through modes and routes,
with an overarching aim toward universal interconnectivity

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 What are the design aims of the Physical Internet?

2. Aim for a unified multi-scale conceptual framework

Intra-Center Inter-Processor Network

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 What are the design aims of the Physical Internet?

2. Aim for a unified multi-scale conceptual framework

Intra-Facility Inter-Center Network

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 What are the design aims of the Physical Internet?

2. Aim for a unified multi-scale conceptual framework

Intra-Site Inter-Facility Network

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 What are the design aims of the Physical Internet?

2. Aim for a unified multi-scale conceptual framework

-transits & -hubs

Intra-City
Inter-Site
Network

Toward -enabled
sustainable
city logistics

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 What are the design aims of the Physical Internet?

2. Aim for a unified multi-scale conceptual framework

Québec, Canada

Intra-State
-transits & -hubs
Inter-City
Network
North eastern states,
U.S.A.

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 What are the design aims of the Physical Internet?

2. Aim for a unified multi-scale conceptual framework

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 What are the design aims of the Physical Internet?

3. Aim for webbed reliability and resilience

The overall Physical Internet network of networks
should warrant its own reliability
and that of the physical objects flowing through it
Network webbing and the multiplication of nodes
should allow the Physical Internet to insure its own robustness
and resilience to unforeseen events
For example, if a node or a part of a network fails,
the traffic should be easily reroutable,
as automatically as possible

Reference: Peck H., “Supply chain vulnerability, risk and resilience”, Chap. 14 in Global Logistics New Directions in Supply Chain Management, 2007

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 What are the design aims of the Physical Internet?

3. Aim for webbed reliability and resilience

The Physical Internet’s actors, movers, routes, nodes and

flowing containers should interact in synergy to guarantee:
– The integrity of physical objects encapsulated in -containers
– The physical and informational integrity
of -containers, -movers, -routes and -nodes
– The informational integrity of -actors
(humans, software agents)
– The robustness of client-focused performance in delivering and
storing -containers.
Reference: Peck H., “Supply chain vulnerability, risk and resilience”, Chap. 14 in Global Logistics New Directions in Supply Chain Management, 2007

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 What are the enabling constituents of the Physical Internet?
4. Encapsulate merchandises
in world-standard green modular containers
• Merchandise is unitized as content of a -container and
is not dealt with explicitly by the Physical Internet
• Modular dimensions from cargo container sizes down to tiny sizes
• Conceived to be easily flowed through various
transport, handling and storage modes and means
• Easy to handle, store, transport, interlock, load, unload, construct and
dismantle, compose and decompose
• Environment friendly materials with minimal off-service footprint
• Smart tag enabled, with sensors if necessary, to allow their proper
identification, routing and maintaining
• Various usage-adapted structural grades
• Conditioning capabilities (e.g. temperature) as necessary
• Sealable for security purposes

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 What are the enabling constituents of the Physical Internet?
-Containers modularized and standardized worldwide
in terms of dimensions, functions and fixtures
Y

Z
Illustrative
modular
dimensions
0,12 m
0,24 m
0,36 m
0,48 m
! "#$%&'&(&)&*+& ! "#$%&'&(&)&*++&
0,6 m
1,2 m
2,4 m
3,6 m
4,8 m
6m
12 m ! "#$%&'&(&)&*, +&

B. Montreuil, B. Gilbert

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Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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 What are the enabling constituents of the Physical Internet?
-Containers designed for the Physical Internet
Easy to load, unload, handle, store, transport, seal, snap, interlock, construct,
dismantle, panel, compose and decompose
Composi on

Decomposi on
Reference: Montreuil, B., R.D. Meller, E. Ballot (2010)
Towards a physical internet: the impact on logistics facilities and material handling systems design and innovation,
in Progress in Material Handling Research, Edited by K. Gue et al., Material Handling Industry of America, 23 p., 2010.

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Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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 What are the enabling constituents of the Physical Internet?

Key features of -containers

Securable
Traceable,
Routable

Snappable

Easy-to-dismantle
Reusable
Recyclable
Original drawing by Eric Ballot, Mines ParisTech,2011-06-27, adapted by Benoit Montreuil

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 What are the enabling constituents of the Physical Internet?

5. Evolve from material to -container

transport, handling & storage means and systems
-container moving and storage means and systems,
with innovative technologies and processes
exploiting the characteristics of -containers
to enable their fast, cheap, easy and reliable
input, storage, composing, decomposing,
monitoring, protection and output
through smart, sustainable and seamless
automation and human handling

Reference: Montreuil, B., R.D. Meller, E. Ballot (2010)

Towards a physical internet: the impact on logistics facilities and material handling systems design and innovation,
in Progress in Material Handling Research, Edited by K. Gue et al., Material Handling Industry of America, 23 p., 2010.

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Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
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 What are the enabling constituents of the Physical Internet?

5. Evolve from material to -container

transport, handling & storage means and systems
-container handling and storage systems:
– Enable fast and reliable input and output performance
– Have seamless interfacing with vehicles and systems
moving products in and out, as well as client software systems for
tracking and interfacing with the containers
– Monitor and protect the integrity of -containers
– Secure the containers to the desired level
– Provide an open live documentation of their specified performance
and capabilities and of their demonstrated performance and
capabilities, updated through ongoing operations
 This applies in currently-labeled distribution centers,
crossdocking centers, train stations, multimodal hubs, seaports,
airports, and so on
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 What are the enabling constituents of the Physical Internet?

6. Exploit smart networked containers

embedding smart objects

Exploiting as best as possible

the capabilities of smart -containers
connected to the Digital Internet and the World Wide Web,
and of their embedded smart objects,
for improving performance as perceived by the clients
and overall performance of the Physical Internet

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 Physical Internet and the Internet of Things

 The Internet of Things is about enabling

ubiquitous connection with physical objects
equipped with smart connective technology
(RFID, GPS, Internet, etc.), making the objects
ever smarter and enabling distributed self-
control of objects through networks

 The Physical Internet is to exploit as best as

possible the Internet of Things
to enable the ubiquitous connectivity
of its -containers and -systems
Image: http://www.globetracker.biz/GlobeTracker/News.asp

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 What are the targets of the Physical Internet?
7. Activate and exploit an open global mobility web
From point-to-point hub-and-spoke transport to distributed multimodal transport

Québec
20
Montréal
20-401
81
Alexandria Bay, US border
90
Syracuse
90 Buffalo
71 Cleveland
70
Columbus
70
Indianapolis
44 St-Louis
44 Springfield Current Proposed
Tulsa P2P Distributed
44
40 Oklahoma City Distance travelled one-way: 5030 km 5030 km
40 Amarillo Drivers: 1 17
40 Albuquerque Trucks: 1 17
Trailer: 1 1
40 Flagstaff
One-way driving time (h): 48 51+
40 Needles
Return driving time (h): 48+ 51+
Barstow
15-10 Total time at transit points (h): 0 9
Los Angeles Total trailer trip time from Quebec to LA (h): 120 60+
Total trailer trip time from LA to Quebec (h): 120+ 60+
Multi-segment travel Total trailer round trip time (h): 240+ 120+
Average driving time per driver (h): 96+ 6
from Quebec to Los Angeles Average trip time per driver (h): 240+ 6,5

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 What are the targets of the Physical Internet?
7. Activate and exploit an open global mobility web
Transportation between nodes + Handling within nodes : About Moving Objects
An interconnected set of open unimodal & multimodal hubs, transits & ports

Air route Road Open π-Port

Maritime route Highway Open multimodal π-hub & π-transit zone
Railroad Open unimodal π-hub & π-transit zone

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 V12 C8 B1

7. Activate and exploit an V8 C5

C1 B2
B3

open global mobility web C6 B4

B5
V13 C9
C7 B6
C3 B7
B8

-transit sites V6 C4
C2
B9
B10

allowing distributed : π-containers

multi-segment transport : π-carrier

through the Physical : π-vehicle

: π-bay
Internet Status of ! -car r ier s cur rently in ! -tr ansit"
I ncoming deposit Outgoing pickup estimation
! -car r ier ! -bay
! -vehicle T ime ! -vehicle T ime (min, mode, max)
C1 B2 V1 04:35 V14 (06:04, 06:05, 06:15)
C2 B10 V3 05:15 V15 (06:05, 06:09, 06:12)
C3 B7 V4 05:20 V13 (06:04, 06:07, 06:10)
C4 B9 V6 05:35 V11 (06:02, 06:02, 06:02)
C5 B3 V8 05:45 V12 (06:01, 06:01, 06:01)
C6 B4 V9 05:48 V16 (06:10, 06:12, 06:18)
C7 B6 V11 05:55 V19 (06:15, 06:20, 06:30)
C8 B1 V12 05:58 V18 (06:10, 06:15, 06:20)
C9 B10 V13 06:00 V25 (06:20, 06:30, 06:45)
Reference: Montreuil, B., R.D. Meller, E. Ballot (2010)
Towards a physical internet: the impact on logistics facilities and material handling systems design and innovation,
in Progress in Material Handling Research, Edited by K. Gue et al., Material Handling Industry of America, 23 p., 2010.

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 Ocean, Sea or River Water

7. Activate and exploit an

open global mobility web

Road-Water -hub
designed for enabling
distributed multi-segment
intermodal transport
of -containers through
the Physical Internet

Road
Reference: Montreuil, B., R.D. Meller, E. Ballot (2010)
Towards a physical internet: the impact on logistics facilities and material handling systems design and innovation,
in Progress in Material Handling Research, Edited by K. Gue et al., Material Handling Industry of America, 23 p., 2010.

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 What are the targets of the Physical Internet?
8. Activate and exploit an Open Global Supply Web
An open supply web composed of an open distribution web
coupled to an open realization web
enabling producers, distributors and retailers
to dynamically deploy their -container-embedded products
in multiple geographically dispersed centers,
realizing and deploying them
for fast, efficient and reliable response delivery
to distributed stochastic demand
for their products, services and/or solutions
Enabling Physical Equivalents of
Intranets, Virtual Private Networks,
Cloud Computing and Cloud Storage
References: Montreuil B., Labarthe, O., Hakimi, D., Larcher, A., & Audet, M. Supply Web Mapper. Proceedings of Industrial Engineering and Systems Management, Conference, IESM, , Conference Montréal, Canada, May 13-15, 2009
Hakimi D., B. Montreuil, O. Labarthe, “Supply Web: Concept and Technology”, 7th Annual International Symposium on Supply Chain Management, Conference Toronto, Canada, October 28-30, 2009Montreuil, B.,
Hakimi, D. , B. Montreuil, O. Labarthe, ”Supply Web Agent-Based Simulation Platform” Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Information Systems, Logistics and Supply Chain Creating value through green
supply chains, ILS 2010 – Casablanca (Morocco), April 14-16<.

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 What are the targets of the Physical Internet?
Open Distribution Web
About Deploying Objects
An interconnected set of open warehouses and distribution centers

Port Road Open π-Port

Maritime route Railroad Open π-store & π-distributor zone
Air route Highway

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 What are the targets of the Physical Internet?
Activate and exploit
an Open Global
Distribution Web
Most companies design, run and optimize
independently
their private distribution networks,
investing in DCs
or engaging in long-term leases or contracts

There are 535 000

distribution centers
in the U.S.A. only

Most of them are used by a single company

Most companies use less than 20 DCs

Imagine the potential

if each company could deploy
its products through a open web
including 535 000 open DCs in the USA
Reference: Montreuil and Sohrabi, From Private Supply Networks to Open Supply Webs, IERC 2010

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 1
3
Factories: 4
Firm dedicated DCs: 16
D2C max: 3 mean: 1,75
F2D max: 9 mean: 3,92 2
4

I ndependent Factory: 1 Factory: 1 Factory: 1 Factory: 1

private Firm dedicated DCs: 4 Firm dedicated DCs: 4 Firm dedicated DCs: 4 Firm dedicated DCs: 4
D2C max: 3 mean: 1,73 D2C max: 3 mean: 1,78 D2C max: 3 mean: 1,75 D2C max: 3 mean: 1,73
supply networks F2D max: 8 mean: 4,11 F2D max: 7 mean: 3,00 F2D max: 7 mean: 3,69 F2D max: 9 mean: 4,88

Shared supply web Shared supply web

with independently with jointly
1 1
implemented DCs 3 3 implemented DCs
Firm dedicated factories: 4 Firm dedicated factories: 4
Firm dedicated DCs: 0 Firm dedicated DCs: 0
2 2
Group shared DCs: 16 Group shared DCs: 3
D2C max: 3 mean: 1,08 4 4 D2C max: 3 mean: 1,48
F2D max: 9 mean: 4,36 F2D max: 10 mean: 4,39

Open supply web 1

Firm dedicated factories: 4
with a high density of open DCs Firm dedicated DCs: 0
3
Group shared DCs: 0
available to many other clients Open DCs used: 60+
2
Inter-region transport induced lead times 4
D2C max: 0 mean: 0,00
F2D: Factory to DC lead time F2D max: 12 mean: 4,75
D2C: DC to client region lead time

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 What are the targets of the Physical Internet?
Open Realization Web
About making, assembling, personalizing & retrofitting objects
An interconnected set of open production, personalization & retrofit centers,
indeed of open factories of any type

Port Road Open π-factory zone

Maritime route Railroad
Air route Highway

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 What are the targets of the Physical Internet?
Open Supply Web
The union of open distribution web & open realization web

Port Road Open π-Port

Maritime route Railroad Open π-store & π-distributor zone
Air route Highway Open π-factory zone

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 What are the targets of the Physical Internet?
Open Supply Web
Supply network 2

++
Supply Open supply web
network 1 == exploited by 1 and 2

Supply
≠vs

Web
1U2
Source: Ballot E., O. Guodet & B. Montreuil (2011), Physical Internet enabled open hub network design for distributed networked operations, Proc. of SOHOMA 2011

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 Shared supply web Shared supply web
with shared factories with shared factories
and independently implemented shared DCs and jointly implemented shared DCs
Firm dedicated factories: 0 Firm dedicated factories: 0
Group shared factories: 4 Group shared factories: 4
Firm dedicated DCs: 0 Firm dedicated DCs: 0
Group shared DCs: 16 Group shared DCs: 3
Mean DC-to-region lead time: 1,08 Mean DC-to-region lead time: 1,48
Max DC-to-region lead time: 3 Max DC-to-region lead time: 3
Mean factory-to-DC lead time: 1,11 Mean factory-to-DC lead time: 0,83
Max factory-to-DC lead time: 3 Max factory-to-DC lead time: 3

Firm dedicated factories: 0

Group shared factories: 4
Firm dedicated DCs: 0
Open supply web Group shared DCs: 0
with a high density of open DCs Open DCs used:
available to many other clients 60+
Mean DC-to-region lead time: 0
and shared factories among the four firms Max DC-to-region lead time: 0
Mean factory-to-DC lead time: 2
Max dedicated
Firm factory-to-DC lead time:
factories: 04
Group shared factories: 0
Open supply web Open factories used:
with a high density of 64+
Firm dedicated DCs: 0
open distribution and production centers Group dedicated DCs: 0
available to many other clients Open DCs used:
64+
Mean DC-to-region lead time: 0
* Inter-region transport induced lead times
Max DC-to-region lead time: 0
Mean factory-to-DC lead time: 0
Max factory-to-DC lead time: 0
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 What are the targets of the Physical Internet?
Open Logistics Web
The union of Open Mobility Web and Open Supply Web

Port Air route Open multimodal π-hub & π-transit zone

Maritime route Road Open unimodal π-hub & π-transit zone Open π-Port
Highway Railroad Open π-store & π-distributor zone Open π-factory zone

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 Open Realization web
About making, assembling,
personalizing & retrofitting objects
An interconnected set of open
production, personalization & Open Supply
retrofit centers, indeed of Web
open factories of any type
The union of
open distribution
Open Distribution web web & open Open
About Deploying Objects realization web Logistics
An interconnected set of open Web
warehouses and distribution
centers The union of
Open Mobility
Web and Open
Supply Web
Open Mobility Web
Transportation between nodes + Handling
within nodes : About Moving Objects
An interconnected set of Open Unimodal &
Multimodal Hubs, Transits & Ports

Port Road Open π-Port

Maritime route Railroad Open π-factory zone Open multimodal π-hub & π-transit zone
Air route Highway Open π-store & π-distributor zone Open unimodal π-hub & π-transit zone

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 How can stakeholders help the Physical Internet thrive?

9. Deploy capability certifications and

open performance monitoring
Live open monitoring of really achieved performance
of all PI certified actors and entities,
on key performance indices on critical facets
such as speed, service level, reliability, safety and security

Such live performance tracking is openly available worldwide

to enable fact-based decision making
and stimulate continuous improvement

Open information is to be provided in respect

of confidentiality of specific transactions
Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1
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 How can stakeholders help the Physical Internet thrive?

9. Deploy capability certifications and

open performance monitoring
Multi-level Physical Internet capability certification
of containers, handling systems, vehicles,
information systems
ports, distribution centers,
roads, cities and regions,
protocols and processes,
and so on

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How can stakeholders help the Physical Internet thrive?

10. Design products fitting containers

with minimal space waste

Products designed and engineered

to minimize the load and burden
they generate on the Physical Internet,
with their dimensions adapted
to standard container dimensions,
with maximal volumetric and functional density
while containerized

Reference: Seliger G., “Sustainability in Manufacturing - Recovery of Resources in Product and Material Cycles” (Ed. by Günther Seliger, Sringer Verlag, 2007

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 How can stakeholders help the Physical Internet thrive?
10. Design products fitting containers with minimal space waste

 Product dimensions adapted to the standard container dimensions

– So that the packaged product fits in a small footprint container
 In order to avoid moving and storing air, products should be designed
and engineered so as to have maximal volumetric density while being in
Physical Internet containers, extendable to their usage dimensions
when necessary
 Products should be designed so that only key components and modules
have to travel extensively through the Physical Internet:
– Easy to be completed near point of use using locally available objects
 Products having to move through the Physical Internet should be as
functionally dense as possible when in the containers
– Functional density of an object can be expressed as the ratio of its useful
functionality over the product of its weight and volume

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 How can stakeholders help the Physical Internet thrive?
11. Minimize physical moves and storages
by digitally transmitting knowledge
and materializing products as locally as possible
through the open realization web
Exploiting extensively
the knowledge-based dematerialization of products
and their materialization in physical objects at point of use
As it will gain maturity,
the Physical Internet is expected to be connected to
ever more open distributed flexible production centers capable of
locally realizing (make, assemble, finish) for clients
a wide variety of products
from digitally transmitted specifications,
local physical objects and, if needed,
critical physical objects brought in from faraway sources

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How are business and the Physical Internet synergizing each other?

12. Stimulate business model innovation

Innovative business models

for commercializing
Physical Internet enabled offers by various parties,
including revenue models for the various actors

What are to be the -enabled equivalents of

Amazon, eBay and Google?

How are the manufacturers, distributers, retailers,

transporters, logistics providers and solutions providers
going to evolve so as to best exploit the Physical Internet?

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 How are business and the Physical Internet synergizing each other?

12. Stimulate business model innovation

Remunerating the Players
 In the Digital Internet, the transmission of information
is remunerated mostly through bundled flat fees
due to the quasi nil marginal costs
 In the Physical Internet, the transmission of a container
generates non negligible costs for each of the operators having
taken charge of some part of the transmission
 It is thus necessary to define business models for
commercializing offers as well as operator revenue models
– There currently exist examples paving the way to realize this, notably in the
airline industry

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 How are infrastructures and the Physical Internet
synergizing each other?

13. Enable Open Infrastructural Innovation

Systemic coherence and means interoperability
must enable the transparent usage of
heavy handling, storage and transport means
currently existing or to come in the future,
that are currently so hard to use,
reducing their potential positive environmental impact

The Physical Internet homogeneity in terms of

container modules encapsulating objects
should allow a much better utilization of means,
thus increasing the capacity of infrastructures
by the exploitation of
standardizations, rationalizations and automations
through currently unreachable innovations

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FoodTubes and CargoCap: Examples of currently contemplated
infrastructural initiatives in line with the Physical Internet

http://www.ilookforwardto.com/2010/12/foodtubes-really-fast-food-delivered-in-a-physical-Internet-of-underground-pipes.html
http://www.cargocap.com/content/what-is-cargocap

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 Key Features
of the Physical Internet Vision
1. Aim toward universal interconnectivity
2. Aim for a unified multi-scale conceptual framework
3. Aim for webbed reliability and resilience of networks
4. Encapsulate merchandises in world-standard green modular containers
5. Evolve from material to container handling & storage systems
6. Exploit smart networked containers embedding smart objects
7. Activate and exploit an open global mobility web
8. Activate and exploit an open global supply web
9. Deploy capability certifications and open performance monitoring
10. Design products fitting containers with minimal space waste
11. Minimize physical moves and storages by digitally transmitting knowledge
and materializing products as locally as possible
12. Stimulate business model innovation
13. Enable open infrastructural innovation
Montreuil B. (2011) Towards a Physical Internet: Meeting the Global Logistics Sustainability Grand Challenge, Logistics Research,
currently available as online publication, 2011-02-12, http://www.springerlink.com/content/g362448hw8586774/fulltext.pdf

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Physical Internet addressing logistics inefficiency and unsustainability symptoms
Key Features of the Physical Internet
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Exploit smart networked containers embedding

Design products fitting containers with minimal

Activate and exploit an open global supply web
Evolve from material to container handling &
Encapsulate merchandises in world-standard

Activate and exploit an open global mobility

materializing products as locally as possible

Aim for webbed reliability and resilience of

Minimize physical moves and storages and

Deploy capability certifications and open
Aim for a unified multi-scale conceptual
Aim toward universal interconnectivity

Enable open infrastructural innovation

Stimulate business model innovation
green modular containers

performance monitoring
Inefficiency and unsustainability

storage systems

smart objects

space waste
framework

networks
symptoms

web
1 We are shipping air and packaging

2 Empty travel is the norm rather than the exception

3 Truckers have become the modern cowboys

Products mostly sit idle, stored where unneeded, yet
4
so often unavailable fast where needed
5 Production and storage facilities are poorly used

6 So many products are never sold, never used

7 Products do not reach those who need them the most

Products unnecessarily move, crisscrossing the
8
world
Fast and reliable intermodal transport is still a dream
9
or a joke
Getting products in, through and out of cities is a
10
nightmare
11 Networks are neither secure nor robust

12 Smart automation and technology are hard to justify

13 Innovation is strangled

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 Realizing the Vision

Evolving towards a worldwide Physical Internet

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 The Physical Internet
Global systemic sustainable vision
stimulating and aligning action around the world

Individual initiatives by businesses, industries and governments

are necessary but are not sufficient
There is a need for
a macroscopic, holistic, systemic vision offering
a unifying, challenging and stimulating framework
There is a need for
an interlaced set of global and local initiatives
towards this vision,
building on the shoulders of current assets and projects,
to help evolve
from the current globally inefficient and unsustainable state
to a desired globally efficient and sustainable state

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 Physical Internet Implementation
Progressive Deployment, Cohabitation and Certification

The widespread development and deployment

of the Physical Internet
will not be achieved overnight in a Big-Bang logic
but rather in an ongoing logic
of cohabitation and of progressive deployment,
propelled by the actors
integrating gradually the Physical Internet ways
and finding ever more value in its usage and exploitation

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 Physical Internet Implementation
Progressive Deployment, Cohabitation and Certification

A smooth transition
starting with rethinking and retrofitting phases,
then moving toward more transformative phases
The Physical Internet can constitute itself progressively
through the multi-level certification of:
– Protocols
– Containers
– Handling and storage technologies, distribution centers,
production centers, train stations, ports, multimodal hubs
– Information systems (e.g. reservation, smart labels, portals)
– Urban zones and regions, inter-country borders
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 Conclusion
(1/2)
This manifesto has outlined a bold paradigm breaking vision
for the future of
how we handle, store, transport, realize, supply and use
physical objects across the world
It proposes to exploit the Internet,
which has revolutionized the digital world,
as an underlying metaphor for steering innovation
in the physical sphere
The outlined Physical Internet does not aim
to copy the Digital Internet,
but to inspire the creation of
a bold systemic wide encompassing vision
capable of providing real efficient and sustainable solutions
to the problems created by our past and current ways
and by our vision toward which we should aim
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 Conclusion
(2/2)

With this manifesto and its underlying research,

a small step has been made
A lot more are needed to really shape this vision
and, much more important,
to give it flesh through real initiatives and projects
so as to really influence in a positive way
our collective future
This requires a lot of collaboration
between academia, industry and governments
across localities, countries and continents

Your help is welcome

Physical Internet Manifesto, version 1.10.1

Professor Benoit Montreuil, CIRRELT, Université Laval
2012-04-05, 71/72
 Questions and comments are welcome

Questions et commentaires sont les bienvenus

Fragen und Kommentare sind willkommen

Las preguntas y los comentarios son bienvenidos

Benoit.Montreuil@cirrelt.ulaval.ca

www.physicalinternetinitiative.org

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