Enterprise-wide Simulation and Analytical Modeling of Comprehensive Freight Movements

拟议的工作将开发一个多式联运网络分析，以模拟电子商务和不同货运供应链成本对货物流动的影响。主要的物理行为，包括信息交换，以及将货物从源头转移到目的地所需的决策将被模拟。将开发一种方法，用于模拟大量单独的车辆货运，并将它们分配到美国卡车、铁路、水、航空货运网络的特定环节。在供应链管理框架内，信息和现金流将被纳入网络分析。互联网创建于20世纪60年代，它已经成为一种开放访问、廉价、全球可用的与世界其他地方快速通信的手段。网上交易现在是一种主要的商业活动形式。这种向电子商务的快速过渡最终对美国运输业意味着什么还有待观察。它可能会在国内和国际产品供应链中引发一些深刻的变化，导致一些重要的货运运动新模式，这些模式只能通过物理网络和信息网络的相互关联来建模。本研究的重点将是发展一个健全的理论基础，利用文献中的信息作为概念证明的指南，而不是实证分析。该合同是在运输工业工程探索性研究（ETI）项目招标下授予的。

The proposed work will develop a multimodal network analysis to simulatethe effects of e-commerce and different freight supply chain costs on themovement of goods. Major physical actions, including information exchange,and decisions required to move goods from source to destination will besimulated. A method will be developed for simulating large numbers ofindividual freight shipments by vehicle and for assigning them to specificlinks in the US truckrailwaterair freight transportation network. Within asupplychain management framework, information and cash flow will beincorporated into the network analysis. Created in the 1960's, theInternet has become an open access, inexpensive, and globally availablemeans for rapid correspondence with the rest of the world. On-lineInternet trading is now a major form of business activity. What this rapidtransition to e-commerce ultimately implies for the U.S. transportationsector remains to be seen. It is likely to initiate some profound changesin both domestic and international product supply chains, leading to someimportant new patterns of freight movement which can only be modeled byinter-relating the physical and information networks. The focus of thisresearch will be on the development of a sound theoretical base usinginformation in the literature as a guide to proof of concept instead of anempirical analysis.This award is made under the Exploratory Research on Engineering theTransport Industries (ETI) program solicitation.