Abstract
Due to recent technological advancements, more diversified customer demand, and increasingly harder competition, traditional postal service systems have experienced significant changes all over the world. In Norway, through a strategic reform called post-in-shop, undertaken in 2013, most postal services are now provided at postal service counters located in retailer stores in order to improve accessibility, operational efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. This has led to a complex decision-making problem for the redesign of urban postal service networks across the country. In this paper, a two-stage method is proposed to solve a real-world urban postal service network redesign problem. First, two location models are employed to determine the optimal locations of postal service counters. In the second stage, a simulation model is built to evaluate the urban postal service system with different location and demand allocation plans under a realistic and stochastic environment. Among other insights, our results show that the proposed two-stage method can be used to effectively improve the accessibility of postal service networks by making optimal location-allocation decisions.
Highlights
In recent years, with the rapid development and increasing use of computer technologies, the traditional postal service system has experienced significant changes in order to better satisfy customer demand and to survive in a more competitive market [1, 2]. e wide adoption of digitalization and information and communication technology (ICT) across businesses, public sectors, and individuals has led to two major challenges in the postal service system
Compared with the volume of registered letters delivered for individuals, the volume of parcel delivery for individuals is much higher. erefore, the demand estimation is based mainly on parcel delivery with customer pickup at postal service counters. e total volume of parcel delivery in Norway is 59.9 million units [5], among which 60% is assumed to be parcel delivery for individuals with customer pickup at postal service counters, and the others are related to business demands and value-added home delivery. e total population in Norway is 5.296 million [76]
When only one postal service counter is installed, the simulation result suggests that the difference between the original location and the optimal location is small, and the accessibility cannot be noticeably improved through location optimization
Summary
With the rapid development and increasing use of computer technologies, the traditional postal service system has experienced significant changes in order to better satisfy customer demand and to survive in a more competitive market [1, 2]. e wide adoption of digitalization and information and communication technology (ICT) across businesses, public sectors, and individuals has led to two major challenges in the postal service system. With the rapid development and increasing use of computer technologies, the traditional postal service system has experienced significant changes in order to better satisfy customer demand and to survive in a more competitive market [1, 2]. Customer demand for traditional letter delivery services has declined drastically due to the extensive use of electronic platforms, e.g., e-mail and digital mailboxes [1, 3]. The growth of online shopping has generated a significant increase in customer demand for parcel delivery [5]. Due to the increased labor cost and the emergence of international competitors for parcel delivery, e.g., DHL, UPS, and FedEx, the traditional postal service system faces a much harder competition [6]. Worldwide postal service providers need to shift their focus and replan their postal service systems to improve operational efficiency and accessibility
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