DETERMINING MEXICO´S LOGISTICS SYSTEM PLATFORMS

BY CLUSTER ANALYSIS

Arlethe Sánchez–Cabrera, UPAEPFernando Orue–Carrasco, UPAEPJosé Luis Martínez–Flores, UPAEP

Patricia Cano–Olivos, UPAEP

Global Conference on Business and FinanceHawaii, 2016.

INTRODUCTION

Mexico as an emerging economy, has built much of its development in its capacity and ability to insert in the process of globalized trade. The Mexican economy has

undergone a transformation of the

first order after NAFTA.

An economy that wants to compete globally

needs to have an infrastructure to facilitate

the flow of goods, services and the

movement of people in a quick, efficient at low

cost.

(Plan Nacional de Desarrollo, 2013)

(Consejo Mexicano del Transporte, 2012)

INTRODUCTION

The potential entry into force of the Trans-Pacific

Partnership (TPP) is a momentous opportunity for Mexico and it must

not allow other countries to achieve better market

access with its main partner but rather serve

as a bridge between these nations and the

United States

(Consejo Mexicano del Transporte, 2012)

With its network of trade agreements, México has the opportunity to serve as logistics and business

platform between the north and south of the American continent.

(Plan Nacional de Desarrollo, 2013)

INTRODUCTION

Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are

saturated due the large volume growth from the Asian market, the delay

ranges between 6 and 21 days, implying severe

commercial damage, due to losses in: the right of

use of port infrastructure, insurance, stay ship and the impact

on the supply chains involved.

(Rector of the Asia Pacific University, 2013)

It is clear that Mexico must have a system of logistics

platforms distributed so that

the internal logistical needs are

met, and the opportunities that the international trade demands

enable the country to become a

continental logistics platform.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Geographic concentration of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular sector; they bring together a wide range of related industries and other entities important to competition

Transportation technology, instead of going directly from source to destination promotes the movement of goods through central facilities consolidation. Due to the flow of goods through these centers, many other related logistics services including warehousing and distribution, migrate to these centers, promoting their development, and in many cases, making them clusters or logistics platforms well established.

Industrial clusters(Porter, 1998)

Logistics clusters(Sheffi, 2012)

Industrial cluster concept applied in logistics area:

LITERATURE REVIEW

There are thousands of logistics clusters worldwide. They are known as "Logistics Villas" in Germany, "Logistics Parks" in Japan," Logistics Platforms" in Spain and several other names worldwide. Best examples are the logistics cluster of Zaragoza in Europe and Singapore in Asia.

It is important to have a logistics platform in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), claiming that the logistics efficiency is one factor that is stopping part of the immense potential of the LAC. Right investments in infrastructure, training, education and government policies can unlock this potential.

Sheffi (2012)

LITERATURE REVIEW

(Rodriguez et al, 2014)(Rector of the Asia Pacific University,

2013)

One of the most important logistics investments in the world is taking place in LAC with the Panama Canal expansion. However, even when this project is completed it will still exist a bottleneck in the flow of goods coming from Asia to America as well as those crossing to Europe.

According to a SWOT analysis that compares Mexico and Panama, Mexico has greater geostrategic advantage over Panama for being in a privileged geographical location, two oceans, geographical connectivity with sub-continents of America and shares land border with the first potency of the world, wide network of road, sea and air and 11 multimodal corridors.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Mexico must articulate a

system of logistics platforms and

improve transport infrastructure

road, rail, air and port to allow the transfer of cargo safely, efficiently

and at competitive costs.

Mexico has many conditions to become the logistics platform of America:• The privileged

geographical position for its proximity to the United States.

• Good weather almost all the year.

• Its geography that connects the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic.

Consejo Mexicano

del Transporte, 2012).

LITERATURE REVIEW

Inter-American Development Bank (BID) in joint venture with the Ministry of Economy (SE) and Ministry of Communications and Transport (SCT) of Mexico, published in 2013 a study entitled National Logistics Platforms System of Mexico (NLPS), where strategic logistics nodes (of which 16 are principals) were identified and proposes that these make up the NLPS (figure 1).

LITERATURE REVIEWFIGURE 1: Mexico’s logistics nodes

Source: Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, (2013).

METHODOLOGY

Whereas in the cities where the top 16 nodes identified by the BID are located, according to the literature, not all of them qualify for logistics platforms, the first phase of this research is to identify and represent schematically the key aspects that a major node must have to be considered candidate as a logistics platform. These aspects are proposed by different references of the literature reviewed Sheffi (2013), Southwest Corridor Organization (2014), Desarrollo Económico de San Luis Potosí (2009-2015) & Garaviz (2009), and are represented in figure 2.

FIGURE 2: Key elements of a logistics cluster

Source: Author

FUTURE ACTIONS

It will be held a qualitative comparative analysis of the 16 main nodes against key aspects. The geographic location of the nodes that

best meet the elements, will be evaluated to select those that are strategically distributed.

Analysis cluster technique will be applied using SPSS software, whose main purpose is to group objects based on their characteristics, so as each object is very similar to the ones in the conglomerate according to some variables selected by default (Hair, 1999). In this case, two strategic variables which are the population and the coordinates of the remaining nodes will be used to associate them with logistics

platforms chosen in the qualitative analysis.

The results obtained from the statistical analysis will be interpreted for mapping logistics platforms distributed throughout the country

and its associated nodes; this will render the proposed NLPS.

CONCLUSIONS

Experts and studies agree that Mexico is destined to be America logistics platform for various geographical, strategic and commercial basis, which represents a great opportunity for the country. 

Taking up the mechanisms of a cluster model and understanding that can be applied to the logistics sector to add value, the proper functioning of logistics platforms and cohesion of the members involved will be enhanced.

CONCLUSIONS

Investment and the economic impact that a system of logistics platforms promises, attracting private sector investment, creating business connections and sources of employment, it will increase the socioeconomic status of the various regions and the logistical, economic and competitive level of the country.

It is considered that this research can give a close idea of how to integrate the system of logistics platforms in Mexico, as the study by the BID lacks an informed methodology to determine the selection and operation of a system of logistics platforms.

REFERENCES

• Admin. (24 de Marzo de 2014). Soutweast Corrior Northwest Passage. Recuperado el 2 de Julio de 2015, de Analyzing the development of a logistics hub: http://southwestcorridornorthwestpassage.org/analyzing-development-of-logistics-hub/

• BID. (2013). Sistema Nacional de Plataformas Logísticas de México. México: Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo.

• CMT. (2012). México Plataforma Logística de América, Agenda de Desarrollo en el Sector Transportes. México: Consejo Mexicano del Transporte.

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• SDE. (2009-2015). Secretaría de Desarrollo Económico. San Luis Potosí.• Sheffi, Y. (2012). Clústeres Logísticos: brindando valor e impulsando el crecimiento.

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