Improving fleet utilization for carriers by interval scheduling

Soonhui Lee*, Jonathan Turner, Mark S. Daskin, Tito Homem-De-Mello, Karen Smilowitz

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Carriers are under increasing pressure to offset rising fuel charges with cost cutting or revenue generating schemes. One opportunity for cost reduction lies in asset management. This paper presents resource allocation scheduling models that can be used to assign truck loads to delivery times and trucks when delivery times are flexible. The paper makes two main contributions. First, we formulate the problem as a multi-objective optimization model - minimizing the number of trucks needed as well as the costs associated with tardiness or earliness - and demonstrate how improvements in fleet usage translate into savings which carriers can use as incentives to promote flexible delivery times for customers. Second, we show that a two-phase model with a polynomial algorithm in the second phase is able to produce optimal schedules in a reasonable time.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)261-269
Number of pages9
JournalEuropean Journal of Operational Research
Volume218
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2012

Funding

This research is partially supported by Carry Transit, Inc. The authors thank the associate editor and referees for their comments and suggestions.

Keywords

  • Fleet size reduction
  • Flexible delivery times
  • Multi-machine scheduling
  • Multiobjective programming
  • Penalty costs

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Information Systems and Management
  • General Computer Science
  • Modeling and Simulation
  • Management Science and Operations Research

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