Summary and Conclusion

Abstract

An operational transportation planning problem from the perspective of the consumer goods industry was analyzed in this text. It has been pointed out how efficiency gains can be obtained in a transportation network run by third party logistics service providers, and how they can lead to a reduction in freight costs. Since many of the very specific algorithms in Operations Research literature are lacking the practical aspects of operational transportation planning in the consumer goods industry, further attention has been paid to the development of a specific approach for planning support. Such an approach has been presented and numerically assessed. Case studies on real life data have underlined its practical value. One key characteristic of the presented approach is the independence of predetermined freight rate structures. TMS functionality is used for any cost based assessment of combinations in an integrated, service-oriented system architecture.