Quantifying the Effect of Transportation Practices in Military Supply Chains

Abstract

Traditional multi-echelon inventory and readiness-based models have not fully examined the ability of effective transportation utilization to reduce cost, delay times, and improve readiness in the overall military logistics network. In this paper, we develop a simulation-based methodology for quantifying the effect of transportation options (i.e., truckload shipping, less-than-truckload shipping, transshipments, and express air shipping) on shipping costs, customer wait times, abort rates, and operational availability. Simulation was used to develop a multi-echelon (depots, bases) model of regional supply chain support for aircraft spare part maintenance activities. The resulting model was used for experimentation and to develop response surface equations for the behavior of the system. The logistics implications of the results are discussed as well as managerial insights into the behavior of such systems. Our analysis indicates that focusing more on local inventory and local repair can have a significant impact on the operational availability of the system. This shift should be looked at in terms of the cost of local repair resources compared to transportation costs.