EU moves on project to secure supply chain

Work has started on the year-long first phase of a major project designed to find ways of reducing risk in European international supply chains. Planned developments include establishing links with relevant Asian projects.

Called LOGSEC (Logistics Security) and designed to "identify where the biggest supply chain security risks and vulnerabilities are and what some of the potential solutions might be", the new EU project is being funded by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.

The main objective of the US$984,000 first phase now under way and due to be completed by the end of March 2011, will be to "develop a strategic roadmap for a large scale demonstration project in European logistics and supply chain security".

According to a statement released by the European Commission, "a broad set of security policies, regulations, standards, technologies, procedural aspects, services, IPR (intellectual property rights) issues and links to other related projects will be assessed and evaluated during the project in close collaboration between the beneficiaries and business and governmental security end-users".

Key technologies and procedural aspects covered by the project, which will cover all modes of freight transport, will include container and goods/inventory, authentication, traceability, inspection and monitoring technologies; risk assessment systems and models; information transfer systems; intermodal transport security; modernisation of customs procedures; and protection of supply chain infrastructure.

"LOGSEC will identify the most relevant/promising research areas and research gaps, which should be addressed in the follow-up demonstration project."

The background theory will be drawn from supply chain and logistics management, security management and crime prevention theories.

"Lessons learnt in other regions, including North and South America and Asia, will be exploited during the course of the project. Links to key parallel projects will be established, including demonstrations in integrated border management (security) and China-EU secure trade lane (transportation), and related projects with the World Customs Organisation and the World Bank.

Freight transport users' input into the LOGSEC project, which will be co-ordinated by EFP (European Framework Programme) Consulting UK, is being headed up by the European Shippers' Council (ESC) and CLECAT, the European association for forwarding, transport, logistics and Customs services.

Nicolette van der Jagt, the ESC's secretary general, said the security of supply chains was "one of the most important issues facing our members today".

"Money is tight for everyone; efficiency and optimising supply chains is a key business priority; so we must ensure that the parts of the supply chain that are most vulnerable to attack by terrorists, criminals or anyone else seeking to interrupt, damage or illegally profit at the expense of others, are properly protected in the most cost effective manner," she said.

"We must identify which are the best measures, technologies and practices to deploy, and identify where the security gaps exist today and in the future. We have, in effect, also to get into the minds of the perpetrators in order to plan security for the future."

Andrew Traill, the ESC's policy director, said the aim of that body and CLECAT over the next few months would be to collect feedback from shippers, forwarders and logistics service providers that could be fed into the project planning. Governments and Customs authorities - other LOGSEC project members include Swiss Federal Customs and a former director general of, and continuing expert on, Polish Customs - would also have an input.

"The intention in this first phase of LOGSEC is to look at both identifying where the biggest supply chain security risks and vulnerabilities are and what some of the potential solutions might be," Traill told Cargonews Asia.

"On the surface, that might look quite straightforward but once you dig down you start to see the complexities within this. Maybe that is where some security programmes sometimes fall down a bit because people try to go for a 'one size fits all' when actually that is not necessarily going to be the case."

The LOGSEC project, continued Traill, was not initially about establishing new regulations, though. The objective was to look at areas where there were gaps in procedures or barriers to providing effective supply chain security and see how those problems could be tackled.

"Of course, some of those solutions might end up involving amendments to existing regulations or new regulations: it all depends what comes out of the research and end-user feedback we conduct. The bottom-line is that security should not cause any significant delay or hinder trade and the international movement of freight," he said.

Looking ahead to the planned second phase of the LOGSEC project, Traill said it was not yet decided exactly what that would involve. "The current first phase is creating the 'road map' towards that," he pointed out.

"But I think a call will be made fairly soon for people who want to participate in that second phase. It is going to be a much larger project with much more funding involved. People will effectively submit their tenders and the EC will decide who will be the appropriate group to take things forward."

Traill added that while the actual partners in the project needed to be European, "as far as I understand, it is quite possible that input would be accepted from Asian companies involved in trade with Europe."
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)