Research on economic benefits of multi-city logistics development based on data-driven analysis

This study aims to measure the logistics economic efficiency of major first-tier cities in China and propose the interactive development plan of the green logistics industry based on the division of the urban agglomeration. In this study, the evaluation system for the logistics input and economic output of urban agglomerations is firstly established based on data-driven analytics, and a green logistics economic efficiency model using the dataset from 2008 to 2017 is constructed to estimate the input–output efficiency, development trend, and spatial differentiation of urban agglomerations comprehensively. Finally, the Shapley value method is adopted to obtain the specific distribution plan of logistics investment. The results show that the logistics economic efficiency of the 9 major urban agglomerations is all greater than 1 under the constant returns-to-scale (CRS) hypothesis while the average logistics economic efficiency of Pearl River Delta region, Chengdu-Chongqing region, and Shandong Peninsula region is significantly less than 1 under the medium returns-to-scale (MRS) hypothesis. The comprehensive input–output efficiency of five out of 9 major Chinese urban agglomerations showed a downward trend, with the highest declining rate of 5.9% in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. The urban agglomeration with the highest increase rate in input–output efficiency from 2013 to 2017 is the Chengdu-Chongqing region, which reached 3.97%.     

物流园区的城市设计研究——两湖平原农产品交易物流中心方案设计

该文通过对两湖平原农产品交易物流中心方案设计创作过程的深入细致阐述,指出了城市设计思想在现代物流园区设计中的重要性,并结合规划、建筑、景观方案的论述探寻了物流园区的城市设计方法.     

制造企业与制造物流组织的对偶原理

制造企业与制造物流的产业组织存在经济学意义上的对偶关系。这种对偶关系取决于三个基本要素:1以制造产品为对象组织生产的规模经济效果;2以制造技术为对象组织生产的规模经济效果;3以制造物流为企业产品交换纽带的交易成本。当制造技术进步和制造物流组织具有规模经济与网络经济效应时,制造物流才能做到迅捷性、低成本性、准时性和可靠性,支撑我国实施制造强国战略。从制造企业的生产组织分析入手,将制造企业划分为以制造产品为对象和以制造技术为对象的两种理想化生产组织,建立模型分析了它们与制造物流的组织耦合特性。     

Enhanced exact solution methods for the Team Orienteering Problem

The Team Orienteering Problem (TOP) is one of the most investigated problems in the family of vehicle routing problems with profits. In this paper, we propose a Branch-and-Price approach to find proven optimal solutions to TOP. The pricing sub-problem is solved by a bounded bidirectional dynamic programming algorithm with decremental state space relaxation featuring a two-phase dominance rule relaxation. The new method is able to close 17 previously unsolved benchmark instances. In addition, we propose a Branch-and-Cut-and-Price approach using subset-row inequalities and show the effectiveness of these cuts in solving TOP.     

Discrepancy analysis of driving performance of taxi drivers and non-professional drivers for red-light running violation and crash avoidance at intersections

Due to comfort, convenience, and flexibility, taxis have become increasingly more prevalent in China, especially in large cities. However, many violations and road crashes that occurred frequently were related to taxi drivers. This study aimed to investigate differences in driving performance between taxi drivers and non-professional drivers from the perspectives of red-light running violation and potential crash involvement based on a driving simulation experiment. Two typical scenarios were established in a driving simulator, which includes the red-light running violation scenario and the crash avoidance scenario. There were 49 participants, including 23 taxi drivers (14 males and 9 females) and 26 non-professional drivers (13 males and 13 females) recruited for this experiment. The driving simulation experiment results indicated that non-professional drivers paid more attention to red-light running violations in comparison to taxi drivers who had a higher probability of red-light running violation. Furthermore, it was found that taxi drivers were more inclined to turn the steering wheel in an attempt to avoid a potential collision and non-professional drivers had more abrupt deceleration behaviors when facing a potential crash. Moreover, the experiment results showed that taxi drivers had a smaller crash rate compared to non-professional drivers and had a better performance in terms of crash avoidance at the intersection.     

Bi-objective optimization of three echelon supply chain involving truck selection and loading using NSGA-II with heuristics algorithm

This paper models a three echelon supply chain distribution problem considering multiple time periods, multi-products and uncertain demands. To take the problem closer to reality we consider multiple truck types and focus on the truck selection and loading sub-problem. Truck selection is important because the quantity of goods to be transported varies regularly and also because different trucks have different hiring cost, mileage and speed. Truck loading is important when considering the optimal loading pattern of products having different shapes and sizes on trucks, which themselves have distinct loading capacities. The two objectives considered here are the cost and responsiveness of the supply chain. The distribution problem is solved using the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II). However, the genetic algorithms compromise the optimality of the sub-problems while optimizing the entire system. But the optimality of truck selection and loading sub-problem is non-compromisable in nature. Hence a heuristic algorithm is used innovatively along with the NSGA-II to produce much better solutions. To make our model more realistic, the distribution chain is modelled as a push–pull based supply chain having multiple time periods and using demand aggregation over time. Using a separate algorithm also gives the advantage of utilizing the difference in nature of the push and pull part of the supply chain by giving every individual truck different objectives. Real life like data is generated and the optimality gap between the heuristic and non-heuristic approach is calculated. A clear improvement in objectives can be seen while using the heuristic approach.     

A decision-support system for the design and management of warehousing systems

The issue of material handling involves the design and operative control of warehousing systems (i.e., distribution centres), which allow matching vendors and demands, smoothing with seasonality, consolidating products and arranging distribution activities. Warehousing systems play a crucial role in providing efficiency and customer satisfaction. The warehouse design entails a wide set of decisions, which involve layout constraints and operative issues that seriously affect the performances and the overall logistics costs.     

Process Redesign and Simplified Policies for More Effective Vaccine Inventory Management

Within immunization programs supported by the World Health Organization, current practice is to use a vial as the basic unit for managing vaccine inventories at the clinic level. In addition to being inconvenient, this has the potential to induce errors in the ordering process. We propose alternative ordering policies based on using inner pack quantities corresponding to secondary vaccine packaging and draw upon visual management, simplified inventory tracking, better housekeeping, and other lean related concepts that have been used in the manufacturing sector to simplify and improve the vaccine inventory management system. We present analyses that show that the proposed polices only require very modest increases in fixed storage and transport requirements.     

Linear location-inventory models for service parts logistics network design

We present two integrated network design and inventory control problems in service-parts logistics systems. Such models are complicated due to demand uncertainty and highly nonlinear time-based service level constraints. Exploiting unique properties of the nonlinear constraints, we provide an equivalent linear formulation under part-warehouse service requirements, and an approximate linear formulation under part service requirements. Computational results indicate the superiority of our approach over existing approaches in the literature.     

LTL logistics networks with differentiated services

This research addresses the problem of designing a LTL logistics network over individual lanes by offering different delivery services (1-day, 2-day, 3-day). A network design is proposed which links lane-specific delivery service choices and service profitability to the hub location-allocation decisions. A hybrid-heuristic is developed which uses a search interval reduction technique with a meta-heuristic. The performance of the hybrid-heuristic is evaluated in a computational study. A factorial experiment design with real world data is used to analyze the network structure, service choices and shipment flows, which results in managerial insights about the design and operation of a LTL logistics network with differentiated services.