Title: A comprehensive approach to planning the deployment of transportation assets in distributing forest products

Authors: Jan Zazgornik; Manfred Gronalt; Patrick Hirsch

Addresses: Institute of Production and Logistics, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Feistmantelstrasse 4, Vienna 1180, Austria ' Institute of Production and Logistics, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Feistmantelstrasse 4, Vienna 1180, Austria ' Institute of Production and Logistics, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Feistmantelstrasse 4, Vienna 1180, Austria

Abstract: Four different modes for transporting wood in the first three stages of the wood supply chain are introduced and compared for real-life-based test cases under various scenarios. They include log-trucks and (foldable) containers. Freight forwarders are employed by sawmills to perform the transports. Their profit is dependent on the used transport mode and the bargained revenue function, which includes different prices for full travel and empty travel times. Tabu search-based algorithms were developed and implemented to solve the emerging vehicle routing and combined vehicle routing and container scheduling problems. The obtained results specify costs and profits of the particular transport technologies and support freight forwarders in their choice of transport mode. It can be concluded that the use of foldable containers could improve the efficiency of transport in wood supply chains considerably.

Keywords: wood transport; metaheuristics; tabu search; optimisation; vehicle routing; foldable containers; forest products; wood supply chains; log trucks; transport modes; revenue management; container scheduling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRM.2012.044515

International Journal of Revenue Management, 2012 Vol.6 No.1/2, pp.45 - 61

Published online: 28 Dec 2011 *

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