"Like other clusters, logistics clusters enable tacit information exchange between companies and attract specialized labor and supplies, thereby improving efficiency and competition and making it easier to start new companies," says Sheffi, director of MIT's Center for Transportation & Logistics CTLL).
He cites Indianapolis as a logistics cluster that evolved into a manufacturing subcluster.
Geography is important in establishing a successful logistics cluster, but it's not the whole story.
A history and culture of trading is helpful; for example, it's very hard to be a logistics cluster in a place that does not accept immigration.
Led by the Logistics Cluster, the convoy includes food, medicines and trauma kits, antiretroviral treatment and test systems procured by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme WFPP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Logistics Cluster service offers Inter-Agency Logistics Response Teams (LRT) and Inter-agency Transport and Logistics Services which includes set up of staging areas, strategic and tactical cargo movement by air and sea, mobile storage, ground transport capacity, infrastructure repair, office and accommodation facilities, and the necessary coordination and information management (82).
"These clusters have to be placed close to the last mile to the retailers". Another benefit of logistics clusters is that they generate new jobs beyond logistics.
Yet he also discovered that logistics clusters improve economic growth over a broader economic spectrum than do high-tech and innovation clusters like Wall Street, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley.
"Logistics Clusters: Delivering Value and Driving Growth".
Logistics clusters create jobs that are difficult to move offshore and lead to economic growth.
