Title: Evaluating the basic load consolidation strategies for a transportation company through logistics process modelling and simulation

Authors: Adil Baykasoglu, Vahit Kaplanoglu

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Gaziantep, 27310 Gaziantep, Turkey. ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Gaziantep, 27310 Gaziantep, Turkey

Abstract: Land transportation managers face some difficulties especially for operating decisions which are about load/capacity/route planning. Load consolidation is a widely used practice in transportation. Load consolidation is grouping of several small shipments into one container while satisfying logistics system constraints. In this paper, two simple load consolidation approaches, which are known as |quantity-based consolidation| and |time and quantity-based consolidation| are evaluated. These approaches are |non-recurrent|, in which the logistics system has a |target time| or |target weight| before the accumulation of the orders. Some performance measures for these methods are investigated through a case study. The study is performed in a 3P-logistics company operating from Gaziantep. Due to the complexity of the logistics processes, effects of the load consolidation methods are evaluated via process modelling and simulation. The performance results of load consolidation methods are compared in order to support decisions made by the management of company.

Keywords: load consolidation; land transport; logistics; business process modelling; simulation; Turkey; transportation management; load planning; route planning; capacity planning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDATS.2011.041333

International Journal of Data Analysis Techniques and Strategies, 2011 Vol.3 No.3, pp.241 - 260

Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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