It has been shown that Milk Run and its integration into long-distance
logistics leads to a substantial increase in economic efficiency and
environmental benefits in the automotive industry. Milk Run is also expected
to work in China, where a large number of cars will be produced in urban
areas. We expect that the production technology and the logistic systems will
not be very different from schemes which are currently being applied by the
big players like Toyota. Extended e-kanban systems with electronic support
from specialized software providers might form the heart of the JIT
production system and synchronized logistics, which means that Milk Run
could play an important role in the collection of parts in urban areas.
Apart from the automotive industry, the urban pick-up and delivery
logistics of any parts, products and even waste could be organized in the
form of Milk Run schemes using suitably equipped trucks of appropriate
sizes. Milk runs help to minimize the vehicle-km necessary for regular
sourcing or distribution processes and will therefore become a dominant
logistics principle in developed and emerging countries including China,
Brazil and India. While the principal idea of Milk Run remains invariant
over time, there is a wide variety of options to adjust the scheme to regional
production and demand patterns in each country, such that at the end of the
day, a host of different Milk Run schemes are likely to emerge involving
various stakeholders, types of public and private partnership, and links to
global logistics networks.