Integrated scheduling of drayage and long-haul operations in synchromodal transport

• Published in: Flexible services and manufacturing journal 2019-09, Vol.31 (3), p.763-806
• Main Authors: Pérez Rivera, Arturo E., Mes, Martijn R. K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computer simulation; Cost control; Cost engineering; Cost reduction; Decision analysis; Engineering; Heuristic methods; Integer programming; Integrated approach; Linear programming; Machines; Manufacturing; Markov chains; Operations Management; Operations Research/Decision Theory; Processes; Production scheduling; Scheduling; Transportation networks
• ISSN: 1936-6582; 1936-6590
• DOI: 10.1007/s10696-019-09336-9

We study the problem of the integrated scheduling of drayage operations and long-haul transport in synchromodality. Although different in time span and characteristics of execution, these two processes have an impact on each other and their interaction has a direct influence on the overall performance of the transport network over time. We propose a simulation based integration of a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming model for the drayage operations and a Markov Decision Process model for the long-haul transport. We analyze the interfaces between these models, outline the challenges of integrating them, and design a heuristic approach to the simulation based integration. In a series of numerical experiments, we evaluate the cost savings compared to a non-integrated approach, using various transport network configurations. We show that our approach achieves average cost savings between 4 and 24% on networks with a majority of pre-haulage freights. Furthermore, we discuss limitations of our model and experiments, and provide guidelines for further research for the integrated scheduling of drayage and long-haul operations in synchromodal transport.