Abstract
Purpose . The scientific paper highlights improving the efficiency of export rail transportation of grain cargoes in Ukraine by introducing shipper routing and concentration of loading at the terminal grain elevators. Methodology . According to the experience of the USA and Canada, one of the most effective ways to reduce costs in the grain to-port supply chain is a shipper routing of the rail traffic. Shipper routing for transportation of grain cargoes involves the concentration of their loading on the multiple junctions. The junctions are proposed to be selected with the use of cluster analysis methods. For the formation of the grain loading concentration areas the authors used methods of set theory and multi-criteria optimization. Findings . Based on agglomerative cluster analysis algorithm, the junctions on a network of Ukrainian railways are selected and the areas of possible concentration of grain loading are formed. DSU-algorithm allowed distinguishing the overlapping and non-overlapping areas of concentration. The problem of selecting non-overlapping areas of the grain loading concentration is formalized as the problem of multiobjective integer programming with boolean variables. The solution of this problem by a modified simplex algorithm allows selecting on the railway network of Ukraine 24 districts of possible grain loading concentration, which cover 70 stations and at minimal additional cost provide routing of about 7.5 million tons of grain per year. Originality . The originality of the work lies in the fact that the authors developed the mathematical procedure for selection of junctions and concentration areas of grain loading at the Ukrainian railway network, taking into account the economic efficiency of the process. Practicalvalue . Application of the developed method of grain loading concentration for the formation of unit trains will significantly reduce the logistics costs in the supply chain of grain to Ukrainian ports for export and, consequently, increase its competitiveness in foreign markets.
Highlights
Grain is one of the main export goods of Ukraine
Where I –station identifier (ECP code) [16]; N – station name [16]; c – station class; q –average annual volume of grain loading, wag.; p –capacity of the elevator facility for one-time storage of grain, ths. tons; T – vector characterizing the distance from the station to the main seaports; K – vector characterizing the volume of additional capital investments for the development of the station infrastructure when loading grain unit trains
Each element of the vector T is the number of the tariff zone corresponding to the distance from the given station si to one of the seaports where grain is transshipped for export [7]: Ti t1,t2,....tn
Summary
Grain is one of the main export goods of Ukraine. Over the period from 2006 to 2016, the share of its value in the total value of goods exported from Ukraine increased from 3.5 to 16.5%. In 2015/2016 marketing year among grain exporters, Ukraine, with an indicator of 38.7 million tons, took the third place, behind the United States (78.5 million tons) and the European Union (52.2 million tons).
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