Vehicle Planning in Cross Chain Control Centers

To satisfy the growing need for efficient supply chain orchestration, a Cross Chain Control Center (4-C) might be an effective concept. A 4-C is a center from which multiple supply chains are controlled simultaneously, thereby aiming to exploit synergetic potential. This article proposes optimization approaches for transport timetabling and vehicle routing of multiple shippers that are controlled by a 4-C. We associate inconvenience with the requirement that shippers typically need to deviate from their individual schedules in order to make collaboration possible. This brings up a natural trade-off between inconvenience and transportation costs, which forms the essence of the proposed optimization models. Next, we pay attention to a fair redistribution of exploited synergy to the collaborating shippers. By considering several test cases, we find perfectly intuitively clear results supporting the applicability of this new approach to supply chain collaboration.