Potentials for Efficiency Increase in Modern Freight Forwarding
1. Auflage
Erschienen am 11. Juli 2008
XVIII, 145 Seiten
978-3-8349-9623-7 (ISBN)
Beschreibung
Thecentralfocusofthisbookconsistsintheinclusionofnewimportant aspects of practical relevance, such as di?erent subcontraction pos- bilities and cooperative planning approaches to the operational tra- portation planning in the commercial road haulage. The book presents the concepts, models and algorithms for the e?ciency increase in the operational transportation planning that include the subcontracti- and collaborative planning concepts developed far beyond the state of the art. The derivation and application of these concepts results in the extension of the intensively investigated problems of vehicle routing and scheduling to the integrated operational transportation planning problem with several subcontraction forms and collaborative request execution. Even if the additional aspect of collaboration (which is itself of high complexity) is not considered, the full complexity of the operational transportation planning still remains insu?ciently investigated in the scienti?cliterature. Theauthorpresentsaninnovativeapproachincl- ing simultaneously several subcontraction forms, which - although of high practical importance - has not yet been discussed in literature. There exists no optimization software, not to mention a comprehensive Decision Support System, for the extended problem solved thousand fold daily in freight forwarding companies. On the basis of a real-life analysis an algorithm is developed by the author in order to solve this highly complex combinatorial optimization problem. The usage of the tabu search method seems reasonable. It allows adapting the latest methodical cognitions to the presented algorithm. Test series for the cost parameter variation of the di?erent transportation modes show promising results and recommendations for the aimed mixbetween self-ful?llment and subcontraction.
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Person
Dr. Marta Anna Krajewska promovierte am Lehrstuhl für Logistik der Universität Bremen.
Inhalt
Integrated operational transportation planning.- Integrated operational transportation planning in practice.- Integrated operational transportation planning in theory.- Integrated operational transportation planning in a profit centre.- Solving the integrated operational transportation planning problem.- Long-term issues for integrated operational transportation planning.- Collaborative planning.- Collaboration in practice.- Collaboration in theory.- Modeling collaboration of profit centers.- Verification of collaboration profitability.- Conclusions.
9 Modeling collaboration of profit centers (S. 113-114)
As aforementioned, collaboration is based on willingness and not on enforcement. As such, the proper functioning of a collaboration is a reflection of deeper tensions between the values of order and freedom [2]. As the true function of order is to create freedom [2], the mechanisms of peaceful coexistence and formulating collective goals are of mayor importance for the functioning of collaboration (for this and in following compare [71][73]).
The collaborative freight carrier planning is of great practical importance in the modern transportation branch. However, as presented in Chapter 8, there exist only few theoretical frames for the market actors. There is no approach for the collaboration of freight forwarders that includes the choice of the fulfillment mode for each individual forwarder and the exchange of orders among cooperating partners. In this chapter, a collaboration mechanism for freight forwarders is proposed.
The model is based on the combinatorial auction theory as well as on the operations research game theory. Its main strength is that no losses are generated for individual partners as a consequence of the collaboration. Instead, each partner has a realistic chance to increase its profit by participating in the coalition, and as such, has strong incentives to join and to maintain the coalition. Section 9.1 contains a description of the collaboration process. Section 9.2 presents a formalization of a profit sharing model. An example for collaborative planning is shown in section 9.3.
9.1 Description of the collaboration process
The presented collaboration model forms the theoretical frame for request exchange, profit optimization and profit sharing for a coalition of freight forwarding entities. It is assumed that the market forces of all the coalition members are equal or strongly similar, like in case of profit centers. Each entity operates autonomously. It can quote the price for request execution and decide the method of request fulfillment independently, i.e., each request can be executed by self-fulfillment or by subcontraction. With regard to each request, irrespective of the mode of fulfillment, profit or loss can be generated. It results from the difference between the freight charge received from the customer and the costs of request execution. These costs correspond to the additional travel costs of the vehicle used in case of self-fulfillment , or to the payment for subcontracting.
Furthermore, it is assumed that each entity is able to fulfill all the acquired requests within the usage of its own disposable resources: the own vehicle .eet or subcontractors. Each freight forwarding entity defines the subset of requests from the self-acquired requests that it does not want to o.er to collaborating partners. These requests are fulfilled within the usage of the own disposable resources: they are planned in the schedule of the own vehicle fieet or forwarded to subcontractors while minimizing the resulting freight costs. All the other requests are included in the collaboration process. In the collaboration process requests are interchanged among the cooperating freight forwarders. The costs of communication among partners are not considered. Furthermore, it is assumed that each collaboration participant announces his true assessments. There exist several incentives for the partners to reveal their true assessments.
As aforementioned, collaboration is based on willingness and not on enforcement. As such, the proper functioning of a collaboration is a reflection of deeper tensions between the values of order and freedom [2]. As the true function of order is to create freedom [2], the mechanisms of peaceful coexistence and formulating collective goals are of mayor importance for the functioning of collaboration (for this and in following compare [71][73]).
The collaborative freight carrier planning is of great practical importance in the modern transportation branch. However, as presented in Chapter 8, there exist only few theoretical frames for the market actors. There is no approach for the collaboration of freight forwarders that includes the choice of the fulfillment mode for each individual forwarder and the exchange of orders among cooperating partners. In this chapter, a collaboration mechanism for freight forwarders is proposed.
The model is based on the combinatorial auction theory as well as on the operations research game theory. Its main strength is that no losses are generated for individual partners as a consequence of the collaboration. Instead, each partner has a realistic chance to increase its profit by participating in the coalition, and as such, has strong incentives to join and to maintain the coalition. Section 9.1 contains a description of the collaboration process. Section 9.2 presents a formalization of a profit sharing model. An example for collaborative planning is shown in section 9.3.
9.1 Description of the collaboration process
The presented collaboration model forms the theoretical frame for request exchange, profit optimization and profit sharing for a coalition of freight forwarding entities. It is assumed that the market forces of all the coalition members are equal or strongly similar, like in case of profit centers. Each entity operates autonomously. It can quote the price for request execution and decide the method of request fulfillment independently, i.e., each request can be executed by self-fulfillment or by subcontraction. With regard to each request, irrespective of the mode of fulfillment, profit or loss can be generated. It results from the difference between the freight charge received from the customer and the costs of request execution. These costs correspond to the additional travel costs of the vehicle used in case of self-fulfillment , or to the payment for subcontracting.
Furthermore, it is assumed that each entity is able to fulfill all the acquired requests within the usage of its own disposable resources: the own vehicle .eet or subcontractors. Each freight forwarding entity defines the subset of requests from the self-acquired requests that it does not want to o.er to collaborating partners. These requests are fulfilled within the usage of the own disposable resources: they are planned in the schedule of the own vehicle fieet or forwarded to subcontractors while minimizing the resulting freight costs. All the other requests are included in the collaboration process. In the collaboration process requests are interchanged among the cooperating freight forwarders. The costs of communication among partners are not considered. Furthermore, it is assumed that each collaboration participant announces his true assessments. There exist several incentives for the partners to reveal their true assessments.
