Suchergebnisse

Standardization and simplification of trade procedures constitute
an urgent need to line up the document flow with the goods flow in
international trade. Electronic data interchange (EDI) is a co‐operative
inter‐organizational information system providing electronic exchange of
messages agreed between trade partners. Outlines a possible
implementation procedure for EDI. A first part consists of a six‐step
feasibility study. If this study ends with a positive recommendation the
implementation procedure can start. Discussions of this process concern
several requirements: completely understand about EDI; agree on
standards with business partners; modify existing systems; translate
data: prepare communications; and management and audit of the whole
process. Concerning the cost‐benefit analysis for the EDI application
– a step which is mandatory in the feasibility study – gives
further details on different types of cost (recurring and non‐recurring,
direct and indirect) and on both quantifiable and non‐quantifiable
benefits.

The paper is based on the study sponsored by the Office of the Public sector Development Commission (OPDC). It aims to identify the critical success factors for an effective networked government. The network concept represents a new way for a public agency to work with its stakeholders. The organisation under study is Thai Health Promotion Foundation (THPF) with the focus on its road accidents prevention campaign during the New Year. This campaign has drastically reduced road accidents. The success factors included network design, clarity of roles and responsibilities, and knowledge management. An international expert, Mr. William Eggers, also helped verify these findings.

In order to survive under the ever increasing pressure to operate more efficiently, transportation companies are obliged to adopt a collaborative focus. Although organisations become increasingly aware of the inevitable character of horizontal collaboration, surveys report failure rates up to 70% for starting strategic partnerships. While a growing body of research acknowledges the importance of fit between partners for coalition sustainability, no extensive study has been performed on the numerical relationship between specific company traits and the performance of the alliances these organisations are involved in. This paper empirically investigates the impact of coalition characteristics on attainable collaborative savings in a joint route planning context. Factorial analysis of variance is applied to examine desirable coalition structures for horizontal carrier collaborations based on request sharing. Overall, our experiments suggest that carriers may reap significant operational benefits from sharing orders. However, the extent of these benefits highly depends on the characteristics of the partnering organisations, stressing the importance of careful partner selection. ; This research is supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme initiated by the Belgian Science Policy Office (research project COMEX, Combinatorial Optimization: Metaheuristics & Exact Methods). The computational resources and services used in this work were provided by the VSC (Flemish Supercomputer Centre), funded by the Hercules Foundation and the Flemish Government - department EWI.

In this article an Iterated Local Search algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem with sequence-based pallet loading and axle weight constraints is presented. Axle weight limits impose a great challenge for transportation companies. Yet, the literature on the incorporation of axle weight constraints in vehicle routing models is very scarce. The effect of introducing axle weight constraints in a CVRP on total routing cost is analyzed. Results show that integrating axle weight constraints does not lead to a large cost increase. However, not including axle weight constraints in the planning process may induce major axle weight violations. ; Funded by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme initiated by the Belgian Science Policy Office (COMEX project: Combinatorial Optimization: Metaheuristics and Exact methods). The computational resources and services used in this work were provided by the VSC (Flemish Supercomputer Center), funded by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) and the Flemish Government - department EWI.

Intermodal transport has received an increased attention by federal and regional governments in Belgium with the objective to slow down the rapid growth in unimodal road transport. In this paper, an assessment framework is developed to perform an ex-ante and ex-post analysis of current and potential policy measures to stimulate the use of intermodal transport in Belgium. The assessment framework includes three core models necessary to evaluate all relevant transport modes and aggregation levels. The methodology of the assessment framework is elaborated. Policy measures are described and grouped into three main categories. Finally, the application of the assessment framework on each of the three groups of policy measures is presented.

Detailed data on regional goods production and consumption are traditionally the starting point to model freight transport on a nationwide scale. The conversation of those goods afterwards into various vehicle load types and the different logistics operations needed to deliver the requested goods type and quantity, follow from that starting point in the modeling process. In this paper, a demand driven microsimulated supply chain model is presented. The model shall be a first step towards calculating realistic production and consumption matrices. So far, government provided data has been used as the base to model freight transport for Flanders. The methodology used and accuracy level of this data is not clear. Modeling demand and production relations shall constitute a starting point towards an agent based freight model under development. The presented model is a microsimulation model incorporating the main firms(firms) of a traditional supply chain. It is a demand driven model using quantity of goods requested at the consumer side as a starting point. The model distinguishes also between shipping and carrying firms and takes into account raw material suppliers able to supply all or some subcomponents needed by production firms. Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) relations are used with modifications to include transportation and labour costs. The model is based on an optimized universal cost function and different initial conditions can be used to mimic real life firm to firm interactions. A certain good demand scenario is simulated and results are shown. ; The various operations of production, distribution and consumption of goods make up supply chain networks. The usual pre requisite to model freight flows on between geographical zones, is an understanding of intra zonal production and consumption relations. This is in essence an aggregation of all individual firm to firm interactions taking place in form of production and consumption of goods, as well as transportation firms involved in the goods exchange process. In this paper, a demand driven micro-simulated supply chain model is presented. The presented model is a microsimulation model modeling the main firm types present in a traditional supply chain. It is a demand driven model using quantity of goods requested at the consumer side as a starting point. The different interacting firms use a modified Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model as the basis of the simulation process. The cost function used includes also transportation and labor costs. The model simulates also shipping and carrying firms and takes into account raw material suppliers able to supply all or some subcomponents needed by production firms. Different initial conditions can be used to mimic real life firm to firm interactions. Firm level and zone level scenarios are simulated and results are shown.