Measuring performance of transportation carriers

ChemiCo, a specialty chemical manufacturer for the auto and architectural market is seeking new business opportunities in the Chinese architectural market. Although ChemiCo entered the Chinese automotive market in 2006 with its newly built plant in China, it is still trying to understand the dynamics created by the fierce competition from many small local players in the Chinese market. The objective of this research is to help ChemiCo understand the complex Chinese transportation market specifically and provide guidance in carrier selection. The proposed approach will offer ChemiCo an objective means to procure transportation services for the architectural market and deliver products to customers across China from its existing facilities (plants and warehouses). We employ qualitative research methods to analyze the current Chinese transportation market. Based on this assessment, we evaluate various transportation options available to ChemiCo, keeping in mind their current and future level of supply complexities. We also investigate ChemiCo's existing carriers in the Chinese trucking market. An Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to evaluate the key measurements of carrier performances for various customer segments and make recommendations. The thesis proposes a comprehensive set of performance measurement criteria to select transportation carriers and presents a carrier selection process for ChemiCo. This process is designed to meet ChemiCo's specific decision goals and allows it to assess and compare the performance of various carriers in a dynamic fashion.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Cheng, Weixia

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mahender Singh.

• 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/1721.1/51650

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/51650