Can shippers and carriers benefit from more robust transportation planning methodologies?

The analysis of transportation contracts using optimization software may yield higher actual freight expenditures due to unplanned events during execution. This thesis explores new methods for developing robust transportation plans leading to lower total cost by developing a transportation plan minimizing unplanned events and quantifying a cost of service for use in existing optimization models. Robust transportation planning methodology requires the analysis of a variety of transactional related data, the application of analytical tools and performance measurement techniques. This thesis explores analytical techniques utilizing shipment, accept-reject, bid, and planning data. This analysis is then used to augment optimization software capabilities, develop simulation models and provide performance management frameworks by making assessments of shipper- carrier interactions as they occur within the design of an optimized plan. The results of this thesis include analysis and methods focused on quantification of carrier performance considering various classes of transactional data, bid data, and market data. Methods to determine the amount of additional freight expenditures as a result of the frequency and severity of unplanned freight are provided and supported with simulation output.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Harding, Matthew James

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Christopher G. Caplice.

• Engineering Systems Division.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33322

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33322