E-mail this page
Request WebMeeting
Applications and Benefits of Operations Research in Transport & Logistics
Operation Research (OR) applications can bring business benefits in many areas in Transport and Logistics, such as:
Facility Location
A commonly occurring problem in distribution system design is the optimal location of intermediate distribution centers between production plants and customer zones. These intermediate facilities (temporarily) store a large variety of commodities that are later shipped to designated customer zones.
Consider the situation where several commodities are produced at a number of plants with known production capacities. There is demand for each commodity at a number of customer zones, which is satisfied by shipping via intermediate distribution centers.
An optimization application can determine which distribution centres should be selected, and what customer zones should be served by the selected distribution centres, to minimize the total distribution and production cost, while not exceeding plant capacities and distribution limitations.
Transport Model
Once the location of the facilities in a distribution network has been chosen, a transportation model can be used to optimize the transport of products from the depots to the customers, such that:
- The demand of every customer is met.
- The amount supplied from each depot does not exceed the total amount available for supply.
- The total cost associated with the totality of transports is minimal.
Case Studies in Transport & Logistics
Read more about actual AIMMS applications in Transport & Logistics in the following case studies:
- CQM - Design of supply networks
- CQM - Fleet Planning and Monitoring Tool for Shell
- CentER & ARN - LPG tank Recycling
- Horoz Lojistik
- Optasoft - SCM Optimization tool
- Outperform - Wastech, Network Analysis
- SITA/Deloitte – Waste Management
AIMMS Examples in Transport & Logistics
To help you get started building an AIMMS optimization model tailored to your needs, we have developed a few small working examples. You can download these examples via the table below, and run them after installing the AIMMS software.
- Distribution Center Allocation
- Facility Location Choice
- Railway Stock
- Traffic Equilibrium
- Transport Model
- Traveling Salesman
Customers
AIMMS Customers in Transport & Logistics include:
- CLH
- DHL
- Lufthansa
- ProRail
- TNT Express
