Title: Estimating order delivery times and fleet capacity in freight rail networks: part II - analytic approximation

Authors: T. Godwin; Ram Gopalan; T.T. Narendran

Addresses: Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli, Tiruchirappalli – 620015, India ' Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 227 Penn Street, Camden, NJ 08102, USA ' Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai – 600 036, India

Abstract: Rail transit is a critical component of intermodal supply chain networks. We consider the problem of providing order delivery time quotations in an unscheduled rail network, where customers place orders requiring movement of freight between specified origins and destinations. Each order is fulfilled as soon as the required rolling stock, e.g., locomotive and rake, can be assembled at the origin. Estimating an order's delivery time is a complex task, depending upon the available fleet capacity, deadhead policy and the level of congestion present in the network. In this paper, we develop an analytic approximation to estimate delivery time quotations for freight movements, along with required fleet capacity to meet a desired service level. The quality of the analytic approximation herein is validated using a real numerical example from the Indian Railway system, one of the largest freight carriers in the world.

Keywords: rail transport; freight logistics; order fulfilment; queuing theory; logistics service performance; delivery time estimation; order delivery times; fleet capacity; freight rail networks; freight movement; India; service levels; resource management; deadheading policy; railways; network congestion.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2015.072722

International Journal of Operational Research, 2015 Vol.24 No.4, pp.369 - 398

Received: 13 Mar 2013
Accepted: 28 Sep 2013
Published online: 28 Oct 2015 *

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