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Large-Scale, Less-than-Truckload Service Network Design

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmad I. Jarrah

    (Department of Decision Sciences, School of Business, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052)

  • Ellis Johnson

    (School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332)

  • Lucas C. Neubert

    (J. B. Hunt, Lowell, Arkansas 72745)

Abstract

We present a novel formulation for the service network design problem in the context of large-scale, less-than-truckload (LTL) freight operations. The formulation captures the basic network design constraints; the load-planning requirement that all freight at a location, irrespective of the freight's origin, loads to the same next terminal; and other important LTL-specific requirements. Our modeling scheme fragments the underlying massive network design model with up to 1.3 million 0--1 variables and 1.3 million rows into a separate and efficient integer programming (IP) problem for each destination terminal along with a coordinating master network design problem. We produce high-quality solutions in very reasonable CPU times ((sim)2 hours) using slope scaling and load-planning tree generation with corresponding potential annual savings of $20--25 million dollars for the target company for which the research was conducted.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmad I. Jarrah & Ellis Johnson & Lucas C. Neubert, 2009. "Large-Scale, Less-than-Truckload Service Network Design," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(3), pages 609-625, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:57:y:2009:i:3:p:609-625
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.1080.0587
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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