Decision support for distribution chain management: the Swedish pulp industry

Author

Andersson, Henrik ; Värbrand, Peter

Author_Institution

Dept. of Sci. & Technol., Linkoping Univ., Norrkoping, Sweden

fYear

2004

fDate

3-6 Oct. 2004

Firstpage

1051

Lastpage

1056

Abstract

We discuss an intelligent use of a fleet of vessels. In particular, a distribution chain, extracted from a supply chain of a Swedish pulp producing company, is presented. Due to the two level characteristic of the distribution chain, it becomes long and complex, involving both inventory management and multi-modal routing decisions. The main mode of transportation is seaborne shipping, and special emphasis is given to the marine transportation decisions including routing and scheduling of owned vessels as well as charter vessels on the spot market. A solution approach based on column generation is proposed, and initial tests show promising results.

Keywords

decision support systems; goods distribution; inventory management; marine vehicles; paper industry; supply chain management; transportation; Swedish pulp industry; charter vessels; decision support systems; distribution chain management; inventory management; marine transportation; multimodal routing decisions; seaborne shipping; supply chain management; vessel routing; vessel scheduling; Biomass; Intelligent transportation systems; Inventory management; Marine transportation; Marine vehicles; Paper mills; Production; Pulp and paper industry; Routing; Supply chains;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2004. Proceedings. The 7th International IEEE Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8500-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ITSC.2004.1399052

Filename

1399052