A Study of the Relationship between Logistics Performance and Human Development

Cite as: Varma, S., & Shah, B. (2021). A Study of the Relationship between Logistics Performance and Human Development. Proceedings – 2021 IEOM India Conference (pp. 833-845). ISBN: 978-1-7923-6128-9 (Scopus indexed)

Logistics is an important part of Supply Chain Management. It ensures smooth flow of information and material across the supply chain. Countries have always tried to reduce the money and time spent on supply chain logistics. Logistics industry impacts a country's economy, both on macro level and micro level. Logistics sector is the key to globalization and internationalization. Logistics Performance Index (LPI) as defined by World Bank and Human Development Index (HDI) as defined by United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have been discussed in this paper. The relation between International LPI and HDI have been explored. The authors have attempted used a linear regression model using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) for studying this relationship. The data for 154 countries for the year 2018 has been used for this study. Each assumption relating to regression analysis is satisfied and the same is proven with the help of SPSS outputs. The regression equation obtained is used to predict the LPI value for the year 2019.

Understanding the Sentiments on Logistics in the post-Covid era

Presented an abstract titled “Understanding the Sentiments on Logistics in the Post-Covid Era” in the Second Indian International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, 2022.

Logistics constitutes information and material flow taking place across a supply chain and is an essential part of Supply Chain Management. Combination of information, warehousing and transportation system with the ability to meet the deadlines timely, fulfill all requirements for quality and quantity and keep a check at costs is what comprises logistics. Given the crucial role of logistics, it is considered an indispensable part of supply chain and a major reason for a country’s competitiveness. The impact of logistics on the economy can be seen on micro as well as the macro level. On the macro-level, it boosts the national economy by generating employment and encouraging foreign investments influx. At the micro level it helps in bringing about savings in cost and time and improved customer performance for the organization concerned. This helps firms in being more competitive in the market. Covid-19 has adversely impacted logistics around the world. Primitive and poorly developed infrastructure may turn out to be the cause of surge in costs concerning warehousing, transportation etc. Underdevelopment of logistics can result in aggravated trade costs and hinder smooth flow of goods because of impoverished infrastructure, abysmal facilities for transportation and warehousing. To add to the disadvantage, developing countries often face the problem of unrestrained bureaucracy of the state institutions. Understanding the sentiments of people with respect to logistics is important for getting an idea of how the world is performing on the logistics front. In order to improve the performance of the logistics sector it is important to understand the customer perception regarding logistics. The purpose of this paper is to try improving understanding of the customers’ perception of logistics performance worldwide, in the post-Covid-19 period. This can be the stepping stone towards identifying the weaknesses in the current logistics systems.. This paper extracts data from Twitter using twarc library of python. Further, to analyze the sentiments of extracted data, Watson Tone Analyzer is used. A word cloud has been formed which gives the summary of all tweets at a glance. These scores will give a lucidity of feelings of people across the world with respect to logistics performance after the pandemic hit. Looking at the word cloud, a clear view of feelings of people regarding logistics may be obtained. Based on this categorization of sentiments, more detailed research can be carried out to measure the performance of the logistics sector. Ultimately, steps can be taken to improve logistics services. Sentiment analysis could not be done specifically for a country as not every user allows location access to twitter. This limits suggestions to improve logistics performance of a particular region.