Current Issue : July - September Volume : 2012 Issue Number : 3 Articles : 5 Articles
The container transportation chain, which consists of shippers, freight forwarders and carriers, is\r\nbecoming increasingly important for the global transportation and logistics infrastructure. Traditionally,\r\nthe carrier allocates the containers to the forwarder and then the forwarder satisfies the demands from\r\ntheir downstream customers. However, the carrier�s container capacity planning and allocation\r\ndecisions are challenged by information asymmetry from the forwarders. In order to improve the\r\ntransportation chain performance, this paper considered a transportation chain with a carrier and a\r\nforwarder and introduced the spot market, competing against the forwarders, into the transportation\r\nchain. A corresponding two-stage decision-making mechanism was proposed: Firstly, the carrier\r\ndetermined the optimal container quantity based on the forwarder�s order reservation and the\r\nforecasted demands from the spot market; secondly, the carrier allocated the containers based on the\r\nupdated demands from both the forwarder and the spot market. We proposed several models and then\r\nidentified some of their structural properties, including concavity/convexity and increasing/decreasing\r\nof functions. Then, the allocation policies were established towards different scenarios. The numerical\r\nexperiments showed that the introduction of the spot markets could improve the transportation chain\r\nperformance and the corresponding decision-making mechanism was feasible and effective....
Background and aim Transport planning faces new demands\r\nfor a dialogue with users. Transport planners no longer just\r\nbuild roads; nowadays they also must listen to users, whose\r\nwishes are meant to have an impact on the design and maintenance\r\nof the road transport system. Yet how can we know\r\nwhat users really want? This article sets out to analyze the\r\nmethods with which transport planners gather information\r\nabout users and their needs; to do so, it uses a case-study of\r\nhow transport planners at the National Swedish Road Authority\r\nhandle these questions on a day-to-day basis.\r\nResult and discussion The results show that the planners�\r\npractices can be analytically understood as something that\r\nproduces knowledge, representativity, and the identities and\r\nneeds of the users. The planners base their analyses of user\r\nneed largely on personal experience. The descriptive, interpretative,\r\nand evaluating elements in their knowledge production\r\ntend to be hidden in central policy documents and the workings\r\nof operational planning systems. If the goals with respect to\r\nuser influence are to be attained, transport planning must be\r\npursued with a greater understanding of how it conceives of its\r\nusers as specific categories with particular needs and identities....
Background and aim The paper focuses on the methodology\r\nfor assessing Sustainable Mobility (SM) at the neighbourhood\r\nscale, and pays attention to two different ex-ante\r\nevaluation approaches: the Multicriteria Analysis (MCA)\r\nand the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA). If MCA is an acknowledged\r\ntechnique for the assessment of sustainability at\r\nneighbourhood level, CBA is mainly used for infrastructure\r\nand large transformation projects. The aim of the paper is\r\ntwofold: (i) highlight strengths and weaknesses of the two\r\ntechniques, especially when assessing SM at the neighbourhoods\r\nscale; (ii) investigate the applicability of MCA and\r\nCBA to evaluate some relevant SM strategies and policies at\r\nthe neighbourhood scale. To do so, a detailed description of\r\nMCA and CBA is presented and, when it exists, a review of\r\ntheir application to assess SM at neighbourhood level is described.\r\nStrengths and weaknesses of the approaches are, therefore,\r\nhighlighted and their applicability to some specific SM\r\nmeasures are examined.\r\nResults and conclusions It results that the joint use of the two\r\nmethodologies could overcome their mutual weaknesses, providing\r\na coherent methodology for assessing both efficiency\r\nand effectiveness of SM policies and projects....
With the increasingly competitive market environment nowadays, the uncertainty of customer demand\r\nhas been raised step by step; meanwhile, in order to build up more close supply chain partnership, the\r\ncollaboration of logistics service supply chain (LSSC) presents multiply periodic features.\r\nConsequently, the study on the quantity coordination of capability collaboration for multi-periodoriented\r\nLSSC under uncertain conditions would have more practical significance compared with that\r\nof single-period. By considering the two-echelon supply chain structure within multiply period\r\nconsisting of a functional logistics service provider (FLSP) and a logistics services integrator (LSI), this\r\npaper proposed the LSI�s cost function and the FLSP�s profits function under stochastic conditions,\r\nand established the multi-period capability quantity coordination model with Stackelberg decisionmaking.\r\nWith the software Matlab7.0, numerical simulation was conducted, and the parameters among\r\nthree collaboration strategies and two LSI decision modes were compared. The results indicated that\r\nunder multiply periodic conditions, the optimal collaboration strategy was that the satisfaction degree\r\nfor the initial capability of the providers was higher than the standardized satisfaction value set by LSI,\r\nat this time the LSI should take rapid decision mode, and reduce the unit penalty value so as to\r\ndecrease the LSI�s cost and increase FLSP�s profit....
The traditional printed paper based product catalogue is restricted to customers and places, which \r\nis difficult to handle in addition to time and cost of printing, storage area and shipping. Thus, this\r\nstudy attempts to present the results of a business process re-engineering of a direct selling \r\ncatalogue distribution that is able to eliminate such physical limitations and enable the distribution\r\nbusiness process to become more efficient. Incorporating e-catalogue as an outcome of the business \r\nprocess re-engineering shows that the business process can be simplified from 32 activities to 13 \r\nactivities. With this approach the percentage of process efficiency rate for business process selected\r\nhas been increased dramatically from 20% up to 86% and also reduced the waiting rate from 55% \r\nto 7%. In order to rate the usefulness of the e-catalogue solution, 30 respondents from direct selling\r\ndealers were selected to test the e-catalogue prototype. The final result indicates that business \r\nprocess re-engineering has the capability to simplify a fairly complex manual and paper-based \r\nprocesses, resulting in a better, more efficient e-catalogue distribution system....
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