TRANSPORT CASE STUDY FLEET SIZE AND MIX Alan Rushton Centre for Logistics & Transportation Cranfield School of Management Cranfield Bedford MK43 OAL © copyright ASR/CCLT‘THE PROBLEM You are the new Distribution Manager of a retail multiple that has a number of outlets throughout the south and south-east of England. Your company is expanding, and is taking over the operation of a similar retail-based company in the West Midlands. The area covered is completely outside the existing boundaries of your company’s operation. You inherit the Midlands company’s depot and retail outlets. The company’s transport function was undertaken by outside contractors who consolidated the drops with other companies’ products. Your new company has decided to follow its current policy of using its own vehicles wherever possible, rather than those of a third party distributor. ‘The product profile for the new area is quite different to that which occurs in the existing south and south-east areas. Thus, it is unlikely that a corresponding type of transport operation will apply in this new area. For your first job, therefore, you have been asked to decide what the fleet size and mix should be for this newly acquired depot. Fortunately, a great deal of data and information is readily available to you. Unfortunately, there is a very short period of time before the physical takeover must come into effect. This means that you will not be able to use a computer routing and scheduling package to help you solve the problem, You may wish to undertake some of the analysis using an appropriate spreadsheet package.‘The Market ‘The Products and their Characteristics Demand Patterns and Order Sizes Unitization Vehicle Types ‘Additional Information ‘The Future ‘The Appendices