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Transportation in supply chain management: recent advances and research

prospects

Article  in  International Journal of Production Research · January 2016

DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2015.1120904

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Transportation in Supply Chain Management: Recent Advances and
Research Prospects

Teodor Gabriel Crainic, Université du Québec à Montréal,

teodorgabriel.crainic@cirrelt.net,
and
Gilbert Laporte, HEC Montréal, gilbert.laporte@cirrelt.ca

The year 2016 marks the 55th anniversary of the International Journal of Production
Research. This journal holds an enviable place in the broad field of supply chain
management, with an emphasis on production operations. With this special issue on
“Transportation in Supply Chain Management”, we want to emphasize the distribution
management activities of the supply chain that take place between production sites and
end users. This is an ever growing field of significant economic and scientific
importance.

Out of the numerous submissions that we received, we selected 13 after a thorough

refereeing process. These can be broadly classified under three main headings: 1) supply
chain design, 2) facility management, and 3) vehicle routing.

The first paper in the network and supply chain design group is coauthored by Thomas,
Krishnamoorthy, Venkateswaran and Singh. It considers multi-party coordination in a
supply chain with several independent producers and resource managers. More precisely,
it investigates a decentralized decision-making approach with three parties (multiple
mines, a rail operator, and a terminal). The objective is to optimally use the available
resources to move coal from the mines to meet shipping demand at the terminal. The
authors present mathematical models and a column generation algorithm. The next paper,
by Tsao, Zhang and Chen considers a multi-echelon, multi-item supply chain under
volume discounts. The minimization of the total network cost is achieved by acting on
the service areas of distribution centers (DCs), the assignment of retail stores to the DCs
and the inventory volumes at the DCs. Several replenishment policies are compared
through the application of non-linear programming models and algorithms. The third
paper of this group, by Wang, Cheng and Wang, is about flexible supply network
planning for a hybrid shipment. It is based on a case study of the memory module
industry. The aims are to determine order allocation among multiple DCs and to reduce
order-to-delivery time. The authors have designed a flexible supply network planning
model which was solved by integer linear programming. The fourth and last paper of this
group, by Kheirkhah, Navidi and Messi Bidgoli, considers a bi-level network interdiction
problem arising in hazmat routing. In this problem, a cost-minimizing distributor chooses
the routes on the network and a regulatory agency controls the risks taken by the
distributor on the selected routes. The problem is cast as a bilevel routing problem which
is solved by means of two co-evolutionary metaheuristics.
In the first paper of the second group targeting facility management issues, by Roy,
Gupta and De Koster, the facility under consideration is a maritime container terminal. It
develops a traffic flow based closed queueing network model to estimate container
throughput with automated guided vehicles. This is a major problem in ports since
throughput reductions due to congestion can be as large as 85%. The model allows the
determination of the number of vehicles needed by directly considering congestion. The
next two papers of this group are related to cross-docks. One contribution, by Nassief,
Contreras and As’ad, models the cross-dock door assignment problem by means of
mixed-integer linear programming and solves it by means of a Lagrangean relaxation
technique. Another contribution, by Yu, Jewpanya and Kachitvichyanukul, applies a
particle swarm optimization metaheuristic to the multi-period cross-docking distribution
problem with time windows.

The third group contains six papers on several aspects of vehicle routing. The first paper
of this group, by Yu and Lin, addresses a location-routing pickup and delivery problem
by simulated annealing. The second paper, by Zhao, considers a multi-depot vehicle
routing problem arising in the recycling of explosive waste. This is a bi-objective
problem combining the minimization of cost and risk. The problem is solved through a
modified lexicographic Tchebycheff algorithm. The results are illustrated through a case
study in Nanchuan in Southwest China. The third paper, by Andersson, Christiansen and
Desaulniers, considers an inventory-routing problem arising in the liquefied natural gas
maritime supply chain. The authors have developed a branch-price-and-cut algorithm
which combines the a priori generation of duties and the use of valid inequalities. The
fourth paper, by Khaligh and MirHassani, considers a stochastic environment. The
authors solve a multistage stochastic problem presented as a variant of the single-vehicle
routing problem with stochastic demand. Casting the problem within a scenario-tree
framework leads to difficulties related to the size of the solution space. The authors show
how to effectively reduce the problem size. In the fifth paper, by Keshtkaran, Ziarati,
Bettinelli and Vigo, the team orienteering problem is solved by branch-and-price and 17
benchmark instances are solved optimally for the first time. The sixth and last paper of
this group, by Anaya-Arenas, Chabot, Renaud and Ruiz, address a biomedical sample
transportation problem arising in the province of Quebec. The authors propose and
compare two mathematical models for this problem and develop fast heuristics to
minimize the distance traveled.

This special issue illustrates the diversity and richness of the transportation problems
encountered in supply chain management. Some of the papers propose problems
involving several actors, either in a cooperative or in a competitive fashion. Some
combine logistics dimensions that are often treated separately, like inventory and routing,
location and routing, or queueing and vehicle management. While most contributions
relate to single-objective deterministic problems, some include multi-objective or
stochastic components. The solution techniques are also varied, including exact
mathematical decomposition approaches, sophisticated metaheuristics, scenario trees and
queueing theory. Surprisingly, there are no contributions on some topics we would have
expected in such a special issue, such as problems related to green transportation or to
city logistics. Similarly, we would have expected to see more contributions based on the
hybridization of metaheuristics rooted in different paradigms, or so-called matheuristics
combining exact and approximate algorithms. Such hybridizations have been rather
successful in recent years on problems such as the classical vehicle routing problem. It is
only natural to thing they would perform well on several of its extensions. These remarks
should in no way be interpreted as criticisms. On the contrary, they suggest research
prospects that could benefit the field of transportation in supply chains for years to come.

In closing, we thank all authors for their contributions and all referees for their
dedication. Our sincere thanks go to Professor Alexandre Dolgui, the Editor of
International Journal of Production Research, who invited us to edit this special issue,
and to Ms Tamara Bowler for her kind and helpful support throughout the editorial
process.

Teodor Gabriel Crainic, PhD, FRSC Gilbert Laporte, Ph.D., FRSC

CIRRELT and School of Management CIRRELT and Canada Research Chair in
Université du Québec à Montréal Distribution Management
HEC Montréal
 ORDER OF THE PAPER
FOLLOWING THE ORDER OF THE PRESENTATION ABOVE

Warning: the R1, R2 indications might not be accurate; The latest version is obviously
to the included

1. TPRS-2014-IJPR-2058.R2, Decentralised Decision-Making in a Multi-Party Supply

Chain
2. TPRS-2014-IJPR-1249.R1, Multi-item Distribution Network Design Problems under
Volume Discount on Transportation Cost
3. TPRS-2014-IJPR-1547.R2, Flexible supply network planning for hybrid shipment: A
case study of memory module industry
4. TPRS-2014-IJPR-1846.R3, A bi-level network interdiction model for solving the
hazmat routing problem
5. TPRS-2014-IJPR-1811.R1, A Non-linear Traffic-flow based Queuing Model to
Estimate Container Terminal Throughput with AGVs
6. TPRS-2014-IJPR-1850.R1, A Mixed-Integer Programming Formulation and
Lagrangean Relaxation for the Cross-dock Door Assignment Problem
7. TPRS-2014-IJPR-1825, Particle Swarm Optimization for the Multiple-Period Cross-
docking Distribution Problem with Time Windows
8. TPRS-2014-IJPR-1487.R2, Solving the location-routing problem with simultaneous
pickup and delivery by simulated annealing
9. TPRS-2014-IJPR-1595.R1, A multi-depot vehicle-routing model for the explosive
waste recycling
10. TPRS-2014-IJPR-2058.R1, A New Decomposition Approach for a Liquefied Natural
Gas Inventory Routing Problem
11. TPRS-2014-IJPR-1581.R1, A Mathematical Model for Vehicle Routing Problem
under Endogenous Uncertainty
12. TPRS-2014-IJPR-2053.R2, Enhanced exact solution methods for the Team
Orienteering Problem
13. TPRS-2014-IJPR-1540.R1, Biomedical sample transportation in the province of
quebec: a case study

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