Practice Problems | Week 10: Transportation II - Freight Transportation Analysis and Case Study | Supply Chain Fundamentals | edX

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PP4 $ Autonomous Deliveries

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If you need some extra help to solve this problem, review the SC0x approximations section in the Key
Concepts Document.

You can also enroll in the current run of SC0x (it is free and always open). There you will find more videos and
Practice Problems that apply approximation techniques to transportation
problems: https://www.edx.org/course/supply-chain-analytics-0

PP # Autonomous Deliveries
The increasing popularity of e-commerce has fostered the proliferation of last mile delivery logistics services. You and a couple friends
has seen this opportunity and decided to start a new company. Your company is called Autonomous Deliveries and it differentiates
from other services through the use of high tech. You use Pods, small autonomous electric vehicles shaped as a bean pod. The Pods
deliver small packages around the city, providing full traceability and accurate delivery-time information.

The city of Madrid (Spain) has offered you a contract to provide logistics services in the city center. They believe the Pods might help
to reduce congestion and pollution. Madrid will provide a pooling location for the Pods at the edge of the city center. Everyday, the
packages to be delivered will have to be moved in vans from a DC in the outskirts of the city to the pooling location.

In order to make a decision about accepting or rejecting this contract, you want to estimate the cost of delivering to the Madrid city
center. You have collected the following information:

In the early morning, several vans drive from the DC to the pooling location in the center of Madrid with all of the packages to be
delivered that day.

Each van has a capacity to hold 120 packages and van transportation cost is $30 (this van transportation cost also includes loading
and unloading the van).

In the pooling location, the Pods are waiting, ready to be loaded.

The capacity of each Pod is 20 packages.

The cost to load each Pod at the pooling location is $4.

The cost to stop at a customer location is $1.5 per stop.

The cost to unload and deliver a single pouch at a destination is $0.3 per package.

The cost for moving the Pods around the city is $3.45 per mile.

The average daily demand for online deliveries in the city center of Madrid is 1000 packages and each customer usually gets one
package.

The city center of Madrid is estimated to be a square of 3 by 3 miles with the pooling location situated in the South-East corner.

Part 1
0 points possible (ungraded)
What is the cost of hauling the packages from the DC to the pooling location at the city center? Use continuous approximation to

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Practice Problems | Week 10: Transportation II - Freight Transportation Analysis and Case Study | Supply Chain Fundamentals | edX 6/6/21 15:14

estimate the number of tours needed.

Round your answer to the nearest integer.

265 ! Answer: 265

265

Explanation
We know that we have to pay $30 for each van roundtrip (including loading and unloading of the packages). To find an estimate of the
number of van tours we need, we can divide the daily demand of packages by the capacity of the vans. This gives us
(1000/120) = 8.33 . But, we will use a continuous approximation to better estimate the step function. The approximation for the
number of Pod tours is given by:
𝐷
𝑄
+ 1 = 1000 + 1 = 8.83 vans.
2 120 2
𝑚𝑎𝑥
Therefore, the cost for van services is (30) (8.83) = $265 .
If you got $250, that means you did not add in the 1/2 for the approximation.

Submit You have used 2 of 3 attempts

" Answers are displayed within the problem

Part 2
0 points possible (ungraded)
What is the daily cost of loading the packages into the Pods at the pooling location? Use continuous approximation to estimate the
number of tours needed.
Round your answer to the nearest integer.

202 !

202

Submit You have used 1 of 3 attempts

! Correct

Part 3
0 points possible (ungraded)
What is the daily cost of delivering all the packages? Include per stop charges and per package charges.
Round your answer to the nearest integer.

1800 !

1800

Submit You have used 1 of 3 attempts

! Correct

Part 4
0 points possible (ungraded)
Regarding the Pods, what is the cost of linehaul from the pooling center to the city center of Madrid and back? Assume a circuity factor
of 1.09
Round your answer to the nearest integer.

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Practice Problems | Week 10: Transportation II - Freight Transportation Analysis and Case Study | Supply Chain Fundamentals | edX 6/6/21 15:14

143 # Answer: 806

\(\)

Explanation
We already calculated that there will be 50.5 Pod tours within the city center each day. The region is 3 by 3 miles and the pooling
location is in the South East) crner. The expected linehaul distance from the bakery is = \YY1.09Z\sqrt{1.5^2^1.5^2_ ` 2.3122\) miles/tour.
So, the linehaul cost becomes:
\YY3.45 $/mile)(2)Y50.5 tours)(2.3122 miles/tour)= $805.70\).

Submit You have used 3 of 3 attempts

" Answers are displayed within the problem

Part 5
0 points possible (ungraded)
What is the cost of the local delivery by the Pods? Assume a traveling salesman factor of 1.30
Round your answer to the nearest integer.

425 !

\(\)

Submit You have used 1 of 3 attempts

! Correct

Part 6
0 points possible (ungraded)
What is the total daily cost of all packages delivered in the city center of Madrid? Include all cost from the moment the package leaves
the DC until the moment the package is delivered to the customer.
Round your answer to the nearest integer.

3498 !

\(\)

Submit You have used 1 of 3 attempts

! Correct

Part 7
0 points possible (ungraded)
What is the total daily cost per package delivered in the city center of Madrid? Include all cost from the moment the package leaves the
DC until the moment the package is delivered to the customer.
Write your answer as a decimal number with two decimal places.

3.50 !

\(\)

Submit You have used 1 of 3 attempts

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Practice Problems | Week 10: Transportation II - Freight Transportation Analysis and Case Study | Supply Chain Fundamentals | edX 6/6/21 15:14

! Correct

Part 8
0 points possible (ungraded)
After the previous analysis, you got to the conclusion that the offer made by the city of Madrid is not profitable for your company.
Madrid said that they cannot raise the offer. Therefore, for this contract to be profitable, the cost per package delivered should be
reduced by at least $0.1. After thinking about this thoroughly, you propose something to the mayor of Madrid: to allow the Pods to use
the pedestrian zones that cover a big part of the city center. This would reduce the traveling salesman factor to 0.8.

If this proposal is accepted, what will be the new total daily cost per package?
Write your answer as a decimal number with two decimal places.

3.13 # Answer: 3.33

\(\)

Explanation
If the \(k_dTSP_\) changes, the local routing cost in the city center will change too, therefore we must to recalculate this cost element:
\(c_{local}k_{TSP_\sqrt{nA} = Y3.45ZY0.8Z\sqrt{(1000ZY9Z_ ` $261.83 \).
With this new value, the total daily cost (for all the packages) will be: 3334.54, and the total daily cost per package: $3.33

Submit You have used 3 of 3 attempts

" Answers are displayed within the problem

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Topic: Week 10 / PP4: Autonomous Deliveries

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Part 7&8 solution? +

question posted 6 days ago by Bob_Schultz
%
I got the correct answer but according to the answer my formula was incorrect. I used a multiple instead
&
of divide. 3.45>0.8*sqrt(1000>9F in stead of 3.45>0.8/sqrt(1000>9F. Which is correct?

This post is visible to everyone.

MynuTom (Community TA) +

6 days ago - marked as answer 2 days ago by JORGE_OV <Community TA?
&

Hello Bob_Schultz,

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Practice Problems | Week 10: Transportation II - Freight Transportation Analysis and Case Study | Supply Chain Fundamentals | edX 6/6/21 15:14

For finding the local routing cost you can either use it as c_local*kTSP *sqrt(nA) or
c_local*kTSP*n/sqrt(Density) where density δ = # stops/Area.

I hope the below makes it more clearer:

Thank you,

Mynu

&
Thanks Mynu. Suddenly we are brought back to SC0x to learn on how it is interlink

Gary

posted 2 days ago by GaryOoi

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