Enterprise-wide freight simulation in an integrated logistics and transportation system

This work constructs an integrated logistics and transportation system to simulate enterprise-wide freight movements and to study the interactive influences among, and the effects of highly developed information technologies on, logistic decision-making, freight-distribution patterns, and commercial vehicle operations. The integrated system is formulated as a comprehensive product supply-chain system that integrates the logistical, informational, and physical aspects of transportation networks and consists of three components, i.e., a logistic decision-making solver, a freight-traffic simulator, and a real-time information generator. The logistic decision-making solver is designed to determine the freight distribution among the components involved in the supply chain based on market demand, supply, and the associated transaction cost. The freight-traffic simulator simulates commercial vehicle operations in the transportation network based on logistic decisions with or without real-time traffic information. The real-time information generator generates real-time traffic conditions and real-time supply and demand information. Finally, a numerical example is presented to show how the freight-shipment distribution pattern evolves based on dynamic transportation costs collected from previous trips simulated under various scenarios.