Coordinating and Synchronizing Inventory and Distribution with Hired Transportation

Description

Increasing competition and globalization are encouraging enterprises to continuously improve their operations management. The emergence of 3rd Party Logistics (3PL) offers managers a new way to run their businesses. With the development of 3PL in the transportation sector, more and more enterprises are abandoning the idea of maintaining their own fleet of vehicles and are choosing to outsource transportation supports from other Professional Transportation Enterprises (PTEs). Many companies have reported higher operating efficiency at lower costs while cooperating with PTEs. However, how management policies may best be formulated to cope with Transportation using Hired Vehicles (THV) is yet to be answered.This research addresses the scheduling of inventory and distribution coordinated and synchronized under the THV environment. Both qualitative and quantitative models will be built to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of THV. Special attention will be paid to establishing a framework to set inventory and distribution schedules according to the characteristics of THV. Finally, software systems will be developed to assist managers to better respond to the challenges and opportunities brought by THV.