Supply Chain Frontiers issue #37
The story of how PLAZA opened for business in 2005 on the outskirts of Zaragoza, Spain, and grew into Europe’s largest logistics park, is detailed in a Harvard Business Review case study written by Dr. Santiago Kraiselburd and Dr. Noel Watson from the Zaragoza Logistics Center.
As the authors explain in the paper, the park’s majority shareholder was the government of Aragón, which regarded PLAZA as a key element of a plan to transform Zaragoza into the most important city for logistics activities in Europe. The 10-year plan was first presented by the regional government in 2000.
In addition to describing the rationale for building the 13 square kilometer complex, the case study provides a detailed account of what logistics parks offer the companies that use their facilities. In the case of PLAZA, the authors use a hypothetical example of a company that has a number of distribution options. For example, the first option involves goods transported from a manufacturing plant in Asia to the Dutch port of Rotterdam and then on to a logistics park in the locale before being shipped to the final customer in Europe. The case study breaks down the costs of each option.
For more information on the PLAZA case study, contact Cristina Tabuenca.