scholarly journals Intermodal Container Routing: Integrating Long-Haul Routing and Local Drayage Decisions

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilde Heggen ◽  
Yves Molenbruch ◽  
An Caris ◽  
Kris Braekers
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Modal Shift ◽  
Service Network ◽  
Capacity Utilisation ◽  
Routing Problem ◽  
Intermodal Logistics ◽  
The Impact

Intermodal logistics service providers decide on the routing of demand through their service network. Long-haul routing decisions determine the selected departure and arrival terminals for containers and imply corresponding drayage tasks. Traditionally, given these long-haul routes and fixed drayage tasks, drayage operations are planned in a second phase by establishing truck routes to transport containers to and from terminals by truck. In this paper, operational decisions on local drayage routing in large-volume freight regions with multiple terminals on the one hand, and intermodal long-haul routing on the other hand are merged into an integrated intermodal routing problem. Different long-haul routing decisions imply different drayage tasks to be performed and thus impact total trucking costs. The approach aims at reducing the number of road kilometres and increases bundling opportunities by maximising the long-haul capacity utilisation. In this way, it contributes to the modal shift towards intermodal transport and a more sustainable transport system. As a weekly planning horizon is used, a maximum daily active time and a minimum overnight’s rest are included for multi-day drayage routing. A large neighbourhood search heuristic is proposed to solve the integrated intermodal routing problem. This integrated planning approach provides decision support for routing customer orders throughout the intermodal network with the aim of minimising total transport costs and maximising capacity utilisation. Experiments show the added value of the integrated approach, which uses more information to make better-informed decisions and increase the capacity utilisation. The largest savings in trucking costs are obtained for clustered instances with demand characteristics closest to real-life cases. Finally, a real-life case study analyses the impact of tactical service network design decisions on the total operational costs.

Creating the circular advantage for the oil and gas industry

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 585
Author(s):  
Christopher Coldrick ◽  
Rowan Fenn ◽  
David Sahota
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Repair Process ◽  
Materials Management ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Management Processes ◽  
Oil And Gas Companies ◽  
The Impact

Maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) materials typically represent 15–20% of the operating costs for a mature oil and gas asset. Of this, a substantial proportion is comprised of high-value repairable equipment such as motors, compressors and pumps. This equipment is often at bottlenecks in the production process and so the impact of materials cost on profitability is magnified by the production ramifications of an outage. Effective management of this equipment is key to the sustainable, profitable operation of any oil and gas asset, and is key to improving the competitiveness of the Australian industry. Oil and gas companies are adopting a variety of models to handle the repair process, with varying degrees of success. Challenges include: poor materials availability and lack of traceability; complex infield materials management processes resulting in costly wastages; difficulty in managing consistency, suitability and specifications of repairs; high cost for those undertaking the repairs; and, correct allocation of responsibility and risk in the materials management process. Developed in collaboration with Australian oil and gas operators, with input from case studies outside the oil and gas industry, this extended abstract discusses the roles and opportunities for the circular economy in helping companies to meet their sustainability and profitability targets. Using several real-life examples, it makes recommendations for vendors, service providers and operators that can have material impact on the profitability of the industry.

scholarly journals Vehicle Routing Optimization System with Smart Geopositioning Updates

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 10933
Author(s):  
Radosław Belka ◽  
Mateusz Godlewski
Keyword(s):  
Vehicle Routing ◽  
Optimization Algorithms ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Distance Matrix ◽  
Gps Tracking ◽  
Routing Problem ◽  
Optimization System ◽  
Routing Optimization ◽  
Vehicle Routing Optimization ◽  
The Impact

Solving the vehicle routing problem (VRP) is one of the best-known optimization issues in the TLS (transport, logistic, spedition) branch market. Various variants of the VRP problem have been presented and discussed in the literature for many years. In most cases, batch versions of the problem are considered, wherein the complete data, including customers’ geographical distribution, is well known. In real-life situations, the data change dynamically, which influences the decisions made by optimization systems. The article focuses on the aspect of geopositioning updates and their impact on the effectiveness of optimization algorithms. Such updates affect the distance matrix, one of the critical datasets used to optimize the VRP problem. A demonstration version of the optimization system was developed, wherein updates are carried out in integration with both open source routing machine and GPS tracking services. In the case of a dynamically changing list of destinations, continuous and effective updates are required. Firstly, temporary values of the distance matrix based on the correction of the quasi-Euclidean distance were generated. Next, the impact of update progress on the proposed optimization algorithms was investigated. The simulation results were compared with the results obtained “manually” by experienced planners. It was found that the upload level of the distance matrix influences the optimization effectiveness in a non-deterministic way. It was concluded that updating data should start from the smallest values in the distance matrix.

scholarly journals Female forest owners as a market segment? Results from a marketing experiment in the context of a small forest service enterprise

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Merja Lähdesmäki ◽  
Anne Matilainen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Forest Owner ◽  
Forest Owners ◽  
Biodiversity Protection ◽  
Control Message ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Change Mitigation

Broad social changes are reflected in the forest owner structure, which has become increasingly diverse both demographically and in terms of objectives and values. This naturally also impacts forest owners’ interest towards using their forests as well as to their interest in purchasing various forest management services. This development highlights the need for service providers to better segment their clientele and plan their market communication accordingly. However, a surprisingly small amount of research has focused on the impact of marketing arguments for various forest owner segments. This study provides a first attempt to analyse, through a real-life marketing intervention, how effective marketing arguments are at promoting first thinning to female forest owners. For this, three marketing messages were created and sent out to 300 forest owners in Finland. One message explained the importance of first thinning to provide maximal economic income from forests, one explained the importance of first thinning in relation to biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation, and a control message included no value arguments. The results indicate that contrary to our hypothesis, the marketing message with the economic arguments raised more interest towards the first thinning service among female forest owners than the one with biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation values. The results further show that the control message was found to generate the least interest towards first thinning. This indicates that incorporating value arguments do improve the impact of a marketing message.  Key words Market segmentation, female forest owner, marketing argument, economic values, biodiversity values

Consumers’ switching motivations and intention in the case of bank mergers: a cross-cultural study

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya F. Farah
Keyword(s):  
Banking Sector ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Retail Banking ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Switching Behavior ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumer Switching ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze consumer switching behavior, which in the retail banking sector is of outmost importance, particularly during financial crises and in their ensuing consolidation pressures. Moreover, research indicates that cultural values play a critical role in determining a customer’s likelihood to switch the service provider. The theory of planned behavior offers a comprehensive theoretical framework for an understanding of this behavior. Its application implies that switching is influenced not only by one’s attitudes toward changing banking service providers, but also by the merger situation at hand, the influence of significant others, and whether the switching decision is under one’s behavioral control. Design/methodology/approach This paper scrutinizes the merger between Lloyds TSB and Halifax Bank of Scotland in the Spanish market, with a focus on the differences between British and Spanish consumers. In all, 30 face-to-face exploratory interviews were conducted with a sample of customers from both nationalities selected through a purposive sampling technique. Findings The results indicate that the switching behavior within the banking sector is largely determined by one’s cultural background. While individualistic consumers are more prone to switch banks, collectivist consumers are highly risk averse and are unwilling to lose the established relations with a bank’s personnel. These particular characteristics make them unlikely to switch banks irrespective of a merger and its related consequences. Originality/value This paper examines the impact of cross-cultural differences on consumer switching motivations and intentions in the particular case of a real-life banks’ merger.

scholarly journals E-SERVICES IN BUSINESS MODELS OF ENTERPRISES IN THE LOGISTICS SECTOR

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (0) ◽  
pp. 79-87
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Dębkowska
Keyword(s):  
Business Model ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Financial Condition ◽  
Logistics Service Providers ◽  
Logistics Services ◽  
The Impact

Most of the available papers on the logistics sector identify the type of the business model with the type of logistics service providers, distinguishing between three to five business models. These models most often focus, almost exclusively on the complexity of the logistical services and their scope. The more complex a logistic service is, the more benefits it brings to the company. This is a result of the increase in added value and key competences, and a decrease in the intensity of resources usage. Expanding logistics services to include e-services significantly improves the position of a company in the so-called pyramid of logistics services. The purpose of this article is to identify the use of e-services among the enterprises of the logistics sector and to examine the impact of the use of e-services on the quality of the business model. The realization of the objective was possible thanks to a study carried out among the logistics sector companies that participated in the twentieth edition of the Polish ranking of enterprises in the logistics sector. The analysis of the data from the concluded study was conducted with the use of the methods of multivariate statistical analysis: cluster analysis and correspondence analysis. The carried out study of selected companies of the logistics sector leads to the conclusion that the use of e-services in their offer has a positive effect on the quality of the business model. Offering e-services adds value for the customer, as well as the value for the company, as evidenced by the improved financial condition of enterprises that use e-logistics.

scholarly journals A context-based approach to community interpreting. Perceptions and expectations about professional practice in the Spanish context.

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Leticia Santamaría Ciordia
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Free Choice ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Perceptions And Expectations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Normative Role

<p>The paper provides an overview of the evolution of the community interpreter’s profile in the direction of a more inclusive, participatory role were the effectiveness of the message and success of the communication rely on the basis of cooperation, empathy and mediation skills. On the basis of an<br />empirical study carried out in medical and legal settings, this paper reflects on the perceptions and expectations among both service providers and interpreting practitioners about the interpreter’s role, and the competences and the degree of involvement that should be expected as a result. The findings suggest that a gap seems to exist between real-life practices and standards of behaviour on paper, which are so limiting that they oblige the interpreter to ‘step out’ of the normative role. A correlation also seems to exist between the interpreter’s attitudes and the level of professionalization of community interpreting; in this sense, attention will be payed to the impact that current lack of regularisation in countries such Spain has on the interpreter’s performance. Finally, the author<br />singles out clients´ expectations and the nature of the interpreted encounter as key paradigms in determining the interpreter’s involvement, and concludes that it is not an entirely free choice on the part of the interpreter, but also and significantly a reaction to the expectations of the clients about which role is considered appropriate in a given setting.</p>

scholarly journals Selected Genetic Algorithms for Vehicle Routing Problem Solving

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (24) ◽  
pp. 3147
Author(s):  
Joanna Ochelska-Mierzejewska ◽  
Aneta Poniszewska-Marańda ◽  
Witold Marańda
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithms ◽  
Vehicle Routing ◽  
Vehicle Routing Problem ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Genetic Operators ◽  
Routing Problem ◽  
Starting Point

The traveling salesman problem (TSP) consists of finding the shortest way between cities, which passes through all cities and returns to the starting point, given the distance between cities. The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is the issue of defining the assumptions and limitations in mapping routes for vehicles performing certain operational activities. It is a major problem in logistics transportation. In specific areas of business, where transportation can be perceived as added value to the product, it is estimated that its optimization can lower costs up to 25% in total. The economic benefits for more open markets are a key point for VRP. This paper discusses the metaheuristics usage for solving the vehicle routing problem with special attention toward Genetic Algorithms (GAs). Metaheuristic algorithms are selected to solve the vehicle routing problem, where GA is implemented as our primary metaheuristic algorithm. GA belongs to the evolutionary algorithm (EA) family, which works on a “survival of the fittest” mechanism. This paper presents the idea of implementing different genetic operators, modified for usage with the VRP, and performs experiments to determine the best combination of genetic operators for solving the VRP and to find optimal solutions for large-scale real-life examples of the VRP.

The impact of social networks in the development of a personal sports brand

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Robert Green
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Rugby Union ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – Over the past two decades the subject and growth of social media has been exponential, along with its relevance to the sport marketing industry. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategic usage of social networking websites to develop the concept of a personal brand by international rugby union players. Design/methodology/approach – This study was embedded within an interpretivist paradigm that allowed the qualitative examination of the way international rugby players use social networking sites. The primary data collection method involved ten semi-structured interviews and was triangulated with secondary sources which involved visiting the three social networking sites utilised by all the players (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). Findings – The research analysis revealed personal branding themes that can be classified according to the following mnemonic: personality, exposure, response, follow, endorse, consistent, and target audience (PERFECT). Research limitations/implications – This study has focused entirely upon international rugby union players; therefore no claim is made for generalisability to other contexts. A potential area for future research lies in replicating this study in different sport settings in order to identify whether the identified contextual factors also play a role outside of international rugby union and for different gender, playing-level or social media categories. Practical implications – This study has reinforced that, within “real-life” social networking contexts, the development of an online profile can help create differentiation for players in a highly competitive market, especially if they share similar “sporting” characteristics with colleagues or other athletes. This research highlights that the utilisation of social networks by sports athletes has to become part of a strategic marketing approach. Originality/value – The author draws attention to the theoretical position based on the PERFECT mnemonic offering sports athletes a framework to develop a successful online branding strategy. The central premise is based on emphasising uniqueness and distinction to offer a competitive advantage by delivering added value throughout various communications.

scholarly journals CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT DAN PERFORMANSI PELABUHAN

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Devi Triyani ◽  
David Aroschi Lasse ◽  
Widodo Widodo ◽  
Husni Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Relationship Management ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Transportation Services ◽  
Mediation Service ◽  
Positive Direct ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The research objective is to determine the impact of relationship management with land transportation service providers to the performance of the port with a mediation service that adds value to the PT. Indonesia Vehicle Terminal (IKT), Tanjung Priok, Jakarta. The study uses a quantitative approach to associative and the data processed by the program LISREL 8.8. The sample was 100 of service users with quota sampling technique. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive and inferential statistical path analysis. The results show: relationship management with providers of land transportation services have a direct positive impact and significant to the performance of the port, services that provide added value affect prositive direct impact and significant to the performance of the port, the relationship management with providers of land transportation services have a positive direct impact and significant to the service that provides value added, and the relationship management with providers of land transportation services have positive indirect impact and significant to the performance of the port with a mediation service that adds value. The conclusion is relationship management with providers of land transportation services has an impact on the performance of the port with a mediation service that adds value, therefore performance can be improved through the port relationship management with providers of land transportation services and services that provide added value.

scholarly journals Electric Vehicle Routing Problem in Urban Logistics

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Yiwei Lu
Keyword(s):  
Vehicle Routing ◽  
Electric Vehicle ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Vehicle Routing Problem ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Routing Problem ◽  
Electric Vehicle Charging ◽  
New Research ◽  
Charging Stations ◽  
The Impact

<p><span lang="EN-US">Due to the impact of global warming, diesel locomotives that use fossil energy as fuel are gradually being replaced by electric vehicles. At present, many countries at home and abroad are actively promoting the development of the electric vehicle industry in response to the call of the Paris Agreement. However, electric vehicles have a maximum mileage limit, so the reasonable layout of electric vehicle charging stations is also a problem to be solved today. In this article, the author analyzes the research background of the electric vehicle routing problem. After introducing several new research directions in the current electric vehicle routing problem, we propose an optimization algorithm for solving those types of problem. It brings certain theoretical significance for future generations to solve the problem of electric vehicle routing in real life.</span></p>

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