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Transportation

Cargo, i.e. merchandise being transported, can be moved through a variety of transportation means and is organized in different shipment categories. Unit loads are usually assembled into higher standardized units such as: ISO containers, swap bodies or semi-trailers. Especially for very long distances, product transportation will likely benefit from using different transportation means: multimodal transport, intermodal transport (no handling) and combined transport (minimal road transport). When moving cargo, typical constraints are maximum weight and volume. Operators involved in transportation include: all train, road vehicles, boats, airplanes companies, couriers, freight forwarders and multi-modal transport operators. Merchandise being transported internationally is usually subject to the Incoterms standards issued by the International Chamber of Commerce.

Similarly to production systems, logistic systems need to be properly configured and managed. Actually a number of methodologies have been directly borrowed from operations management such as using Economic Order Quantity models for managing inventory in the nodes of the network. Distribution resource planning (DRP) is similar to MRP, except that it doesn't concern activities inside the nodes of the network but planning distribution when moving goods through the links of the network.

Traditionally in logistics configuration may be at the level of the warehouse (node) or at level of the distribution system (network).

Regarding a single warehouse, besides the issue of designing and building the warehouse, configuration means solving a number of interrelated technical-economic problems: dimensioning rack cells, choosing a palletizing method (manual or through robots), rack dimensioning and design, number of racks, number and typology of retrieval systems (e.g. stacker cranes). Some important constraints have to be satisfied: fork and load beams resistance to bending and proper placement of sprinklers. Although picking is more of a tactical planning decision than a configuration problem, it is important to take it into account when deciding the racks layout inside the warehouse and buying tools such as handlers and motorized carts since once those decisions are taken they will work as constraints when managing the warehouse, same reasoning for sorting when designing the conveyor system or installing automatic dispensers.

Configuration at the level of the distribution system concerns primarily the problem of location of the nodes in a geographic space and distribution of capacity among the nodes. The first may be referred to as facility location (with the special case of site selection) while the latter to as capacity allocation. The problem of outsourcing typically arises at this level: the nodes of a supply chain are very rarely owned by a single enterprise. Distribution networks can be characterized by numbers of levels, namely the number of intermediary nodes between supplier and consumer.

This distinction is more useful for modeling purposes, but it relates also to a tactical decision regarding safety stocks: considering a two level network, if safety inventory is kept only in peripheral warehouses then it is called a dependent system (from suppliers), if safety inventory is distributed among central and peripheral warehouses it is called an independent system (from suppliers).^[19] Transportation from producer to the second level is called primary transportation, from the second level to consumer is called secondary transportation.

Text D

New words and word combinations:

1) practitioner – практик; 2) freight forwarder – экспедитор; 3) encompassing – охватывающий; 4) disposal – утилизация; 5) entrepreneur – предприниматель; 6) maritime logistics – морская логистика; 7) to train – обучать; 8) degree – степень; 9) to contribute – способствовать; 10) to engage with – взаимодействовать с …; 11) challenge – проблема; 12) distribution – распределение; 13) agenda – повестка дня