Consolidation of Customer Orders into Truckloads at a Large Manufacturer; Journal article

摘要

The authors describe the development and operation of a computerized system based on a mathematical optimization model that is used by a major U.S. manufacturer to consolidate customer orders into truckloads. Dozens of users employ the system daily for planning the delivery of orders from manufacturing plants to customers by truckload carriers, saving numerous hours of the users' time and reducing transportation costs. The company involved views this new application as a tool providing strategic advantage over its competition, and therefore wishes not to be identified. The authors also have changed some of the details in the description of the operation and in the data and results to reduce the likelihood of identification. Section 1 describes the operational environment, Section 2 discusses the system's design, Section 3 describes the system's development, and Section 4 describes the system's operation.