Multimodal Transport Network Optimization Considering Safety Stock under Real-Time Information

Yang Song,Ming-fei Chen,Qi Sun,Yan-qiu Liu,Chuang-chuang Cong

doi:10.1155/2019/5480135

Yang Song, Ming-fei Chen + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5480135

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Abstract

A production department and two distribution departments form a multimodal logistics supply network. The production department provides two ordering opportunities within one production cycle, and the real-time updates of demand information are required in the interval between two orders. Based on this, the paper studies the security inventory optimization problem of multimodal transport networks. On the basis of portraying the real-time information update process, the multimodal network optimization model without considering safety stock and the multimodal network optimization model considering safety stock are constructed, respectively, and the transshipment price and demand information of the intermodal network are updated. The parameters are analyzed for sensitivity. The analysis of examples shows that, on the one hand, with the update of demand information, the distribution department adopts the multimodal transport model with safety stock to improve the profit of the distribution department and the supply network. On the other hand, the production sector can meet market demand with a lower production scale, while the distribution department can effectively respond to stochastic demand through a multimodal model with safety stock.

Highlights

The shortening of the product-life-cycle and the expansion of the product sales area make the supply and demand imbalance more likely between regions [1,2,3]
Mengliang et al [1], Todd et al [2], and Pałaszewskatkacz et al [3] showed that demand information cannot be ignored; references [4,5,6,7,8] found the importance of requirements updates; researchers [9,10,11,12,13,14,15] emphasized that safety stock should be considered in multimodal transport; costs control should be considered in multimodal transportation optimization from literatures [16,17,18,19,20]; and Zhang et al [21] provided a good method reference for multimodal transport network optimization problem
This paper considers a multimodal transport supply network consisting of a production department M and two distribution departments i (i = 1, 2)

Summary

Introduction

The shortening of the product-life-cycle and the expansion of the product sales area make the supply and demand imbalance more likely between regions [1,2,3]. With the update of demand information, enterprises can effectively deal with the mismatch between supply and demand through the multimodal transport logistics supply network, which can reduce inventory backlog and improve customer service level [4,5,6,7,8]. The imbalance of inventory control caused by mismatch between supply and demand can be handled by means of emergency ordering or by multimodal transport from the transshipment center [9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. Mengliang et al [1], Todd et al [2], and Pałaszewskatkacz et al [3] showed that demand information cannot be ignored; references [4,5,6,7,8] found the importance of requirements updates; researchers [9,10,11,12,13,14,15] emphasized that safety stock should be considered in multimodal transport; costs control should be considered in multimodal transportation optimization from literatures [16,17,18,19,20]; and Zhang et al [21] provided a good method reference for multimodal transport network optimization problem

Literature Review

Problem Description

Update Process of Real-Time Information

Discussions on the Case Study

Findings

Conclusions