E-Fulfillment and Multi-Channel Distribution – A Review

This review addresses the specific supply chain management issues of Internet fulfillment in a multi-channel environment. It provides a systematic overview of managerial planning tasks and reviews corresponding quantitative models. In this way, we aim to enhance the understanding of multi-channel e-fulfillment and to identify gaps between relevant managerial issues and academic literature, thereby indicating directions for future research. One of the recurrent patterns in today’s e-commerce operations is the combination of ‘bricks-and-clicks’, the integration of e-fulfillment into a portfolio of multiple alternative distribution channels. From a supply chain management perspective, multi-channel distribution provides opportunities for serving different customer segments, creating synergies, and exploiting economies of scale. However, in order to successfully exploit these opportunities companies need to master novel challenges. In particular, the design of a multi-channel distribution system requires a constant trade-off between process integration and separation across multiple channels. In addition, sales and operations decisions are ever more tightly intertwined as delivery and after-sales services are becoming key components of the product offering.Distribution;E-fulfillment;Literature Review;Online Retailing

Routing Optimization of Electric Vehicles for Charging With Event-Driven Pricing Strategy

With the increasing market penetration of electric vehicles (EVs), the charging behavior and driving characteristics of EVs have an increasing impact on the operation of power grids and traffic networks. Existing research on EV routing planning and charging navigation strategies mainly focuses on vehicle-road-network interactions, but the vehicle-to-vehicle interaction has rarely been considered, particularly in studying simultaneous charging requests. To investigate the interaction of multiple vehicles in routing planning and charging, a routing optimization of EVs for charging with an event-driven pricing strategy is proposed. The urban area of a city is taken as a case for numerical simulation, which demonstrates that the proposed strategy can not only alleviate the long-time queuing for EV fast charging but also improve the utilization rate of charging infrastructures. Note to Practitioners - This article was inspired by the concerns of difficulties for electric vehicle (EV)'s fast charging and the imbalance of the utilization rate of charging facilities. Existing route optimization and charging navigation research are mainly applicable to static traffic networks, which cannot dynamically adjust driving routes and charging strategies with real-time traffic information. Besides, the mutual impact between vehicles is rarely considered in these works in routing planning. To resolve the shortcomings of existing models, a receding-horizon-based strategy that can be applied to dynamic traffic networks is proposed. In this article, various factors that the user is concerned about within the course of driving are converted into driving costs, through which each road section of traffic networks is assigned the corresponding values. Combined with the graph theory analysis method, the mathematical form of the dynamic traffic network is presented. Then, the article carefully plans and adjusts EV driving routes and charging strategies. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed method can significantly increase the adoption of EV fast charging while alleviating unreasonable distributions of regional charging demand.</p

Smart charging strategies for electric vehicle charging stations

Although the concept of transportation electrification holds enormous prospects in addressing the global environmental pollution problem, consumer concerns over the limited availability of charging stations and long charging/waiting times are major contributors to the slow uptake of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in many countries. To address the consumer concerns, many countries have undertaken projects to deploy a network of both fast and slow charging stations, commonly known as electric vehicle charging networks. While a large electric vehicle charging network will certainly be helpful in addressing PEV owners\u27 concerns, the full potential of this network cannot be realised without the implementation of smart charging strategies. For example, the charging load distribution in an EV charging network would be expected to be skewed towards stations located in hotspot areas, instigating longer queues and waiting times in these areas, particularly during afternoon peak traffic hours. This can also lead to a major challenge for the utilities in the form of an extended PEV charging load period, which could overlap with residential evening peak load hours, increasing peak demand and causing serious issues including network instability and power outages. This thesis presents a smart charging strategy for EV charging networks. The proposed smart charging strategy finds the optimum charging station for a PEV owner to ensure minimum charging time, travel time and charging cost. The problem is modelled as a multi-objective optimisation problem. A metaheuristic solution in the form of ant colony optimisation (ACO) is applied to solve the problem. Considering the influence of pricing on PEV owners\u27 behaviour, the smart charging strategy is then extended to address the charging load imbalance problem in the EV network. A coordinated dynamic pricing model is presented to reduce the load imbalance, which contributes to a reduction in overlaps between residential and charging loads. A constraint optimization problem is formulated and a heuristic solution is introduced to minimize the overlap between the PEV and residential peak load periods. In the last part of this thesis, a smart management strategy for portable charging stations (PCSs) is introduced. It is shown that when smartly managed, PCSs can play an important role in the reduction of waiting times in an EV charging network. A new strategy is proposed for dispatching/allocating PCSs during various hours of the day to reduce waiting times at public charging stations. This also helps to decrease the overlap between the total PEV demand and peak residential load

Survey on Ten Years of Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problems: Mathematical Models, Solution Methods and Real-Life Applications

A crucial practical issue encountered in logistics management is the circulation of final products from depots to end-user customers. When routing and scheduling systems are improved, they will not only improve customer satisfaction but also increase the capacity to serve a large number of customers minimizing time. On the assumption that there is only one depot, the key issue of distribution is generally identified and formulated as VRP standing for Vehicle Routing Problem. In case, a company having more than one depot, the suggested VRP is most unlikely to work out. In view of resolving this limitation and proposing alternatives, VRP with multiple depots and multi-depot MDVRP have been a focus of this paper. Carrying out a comprehensive analytical literature survey of past ten years on cost-effective Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing is the main aim of this research. Therefore, the current status of the MDVRP along with its future developments is reviewed at length in the paper

E-Fulfillment and Multi-Channel Distribution – A Review

This review addresses the specific supply chain management issues of Internet fulfillment in a multi-channel environment. It provides a systematic overview of managerial planning tasks and reviews corresponding quantitative models. In this way, we aim to enhance the understanding of multi-channel e-fulfillment and to identify gaps between relevant managerial issues and academic literature, thereby indicating directions for future research. One of the recurrent patterns in today’s e-commerce operations is the combination of ‘bricks-and-clicks’, the integration of e-fulfillment into a portfolio of multiple alternative distribution channels. From a supply chain management perspective, multi-channel distribution provides opportunities for serving different customer segments, creating synergies, and exploiting economies of scale. However, in order to successfully exploit these opportunities companies need to master novel challenges. In particular, the design of a multi-channel distribution system requires a constant trade-off between process integration and separation across multiple channels. In addition, sales and operations decisions are ever more tightly intertwined as delivery and after-sales services are becoming key components of the product offering

Developing Model Of Closed Loop Supply Chain Network For Subsidized Lpg 3-Kgs In East Java-Indonesia

Demand of subsidized LPG 3-kgs in Indonesia has been increasing since the Indonesian government imposed a conversion program from kerosene to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in 2007. The high increase in demand for subsidized LPG 3-kgs led to the scarcity of products availability. The design of a closed distribution system is required to ensure the availability of subsidized LPG 3-kgs. In this research, the development model of the integration of closed loop supply chain network and vehicle routing problem with simultaneous deliveries and pick-ups with time windows has been proposed. The mechanism of closed distribution system starts from the distributors send LPG empty tubes to filling stations. After filling station inspected and filled the LPG tubes, distributors delivered LPG 3-kgs subsidized from the filling station to some retailers. At the same time, the distributors take back the empty tubes from these retailers by considering the limitations of operational time in each retailers. The proposed model was tested on numerical example and analyzed the result

Enhancing the Existing Microscopic Simulation Modeling Practice for Express Lane Facilities

The implementation of managed lanes (MLs), also known as dynamically priced express lanes, to improve freeway traffic flow and personal throughput is on the rise. Congestion pricing is increasingly becoming a common strategy for congestion management, often requiring microscopic simulation during both planning and operational stages. VISSIM is a recognized microscopic simulation software used for analyzing the performance of managed lanes (MLs). This thesis addressed two important microscopic simulation issues that affect the evaluation results of MLs. One of the microscopic simulation issues that has not yet been addressed by previous studies is the required minimum managed lane routing decision (MLRD) distance upstream of the ingress point of MLs. Decision distance is an optimal upstream distance prior to the ingress at which drivers decide to use MLs and change lanes to orient on a side of MLs ingress. To answer this question, this study used a VISSIM model simulating I-295 proposed MLs in Jacksonville, Florida, United States (U.S), varying the MLRD point at regular intervals from 500 feet to 7,000 feet for different levels of service (LOS) input. Three measures of effectiveness (MOEs) - speed, the number of vehicles changing lanes, and following distance - were used for the analysis. These MOEs were measured in the 500 feet zone prior to the ingress. The results indicate that as the LOS deteriorates, speed decreases, the number of vehicles changing lanes increases, and the following distance decreases. When the LOS is constant, the increase in the MLRD distance from the ingress point was associated with the increase in the speed at the 500 feet zone prior to the ingress, less number of lane changes, and the increase in following vehicle gap. However, the MOEs approached constant values after reaching a certain MLRD distance. LOS D was used to determine the minimum MLRD distance to the ingress of the MLs. The determined minimum MLRD distances were 4,000 and 3,000 feet for 6 and 3 lane segments prior to the ingress point, respectively. Another issue addressed in this thesis is the managed lane evaluation (MLE) outputs, which include speed, travel time, density, and tolls. In computing the performance measures, the existing VISSIM managed lane evaluation (EVMLE) tool is designed to use the section starting at the point when vehicles are assigned to use MLs, also known as the MLRD point, which is located upstream of the ingress. The longer the MLRD distance from the ingress, the more the EVMLE tool uses the traffic conditions of the MLs traffic before entering the ML in its computations. This study evaluates the impact of the MLRD distance on the EVMLE outputs and presents a proposed algorithm that addresses the EVMLE shortcomings. In order to examine the influence of the MLRD distance on the outputs of the above-mentioned two algorithms, simulation scenarios of varying MLRD distances from 500 ft to 7,000 feet from the ingress were created. For demonstration purposes, only the speed was used to represent other performance measures. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was performed to determine whether there was a significant difference in the speed results with the change in the MLRD distance. According to the ANOVA results, the EVMLE tool produced ML speeds that are MLRD dependent, yielding lower speeds with an increased MLRD distance. On the other hand, the ML speed results from the proposed algorithm were fairly constant, regardless of the MLRD distance