Abstract
Manufacturing operations that assemble parts often receive components in expensive highly engineered shipping containers. As these containers circulate among suppliers, assembly operations, and logistic providers, they require inspections and repairs. This paper presents mathematical models that predict the number of available containers as functions of damage, repair times, and scheduled daily production. The models allow making complex decisions with a few basic parameters. Results not only show a minimal investment in the number of containers and safety stock but also quantify the dependence on damage rates and repair times for ordering additional containers.
Highlights
Many studies on shipping containers emphasize repositioning empty shipping containers [1,2,3,4]. These and other studies, for example [5,6,7], that stress other aspects of supply chains and include empty shipping containers refer to large box containers, or twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) convenient for multitransportation modes, ports, fleet terminals, modal transfers, and so forth
Our paper first presents a mathematical model for a supply chain consisting of a supplier, a general assembly plant, and a container maintenance center (CMC); see Figure 1
This paper explored the availability of highly engineered containers for shipping parts from suppliers to assembly plants by taking into account that damaged containers require repair and stay temporarily out of service
Summary
Many studies on shipping containers emphasize repositioning empty shipping containers [1,2,3,4]. While many articles on large box containers have been published, very little if any literature addresses the problem of maintaining the availability of highly engineered reusable containers required for shipping damaged parts in a manufacturing operation. Our paper first presents a mathematical model for a supply chain consisting of a supplier, a general assembly plant, and a container maintenance center (CMC); see Figure 1. The paper creates predictive mathematical models that explore and highlight the consequences of different assumptions on the availability of highly engineered containers. These models can show where to optimize cash flow. Each car model under current production requires many thousands of expensive highly engineered reusable containers. A section containing remarks and a summary section conclude this paper
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