Supply chain disruptions and their propagating effects often result in negative impacts on supply chain performance, reduced profit, and an overall decrease in supply chain health. To mitigate these risks, it is important to understand the behavior of specific disruptions and to identify mitigation strategies that would be the most...
Large equine facilities are comprised of many different departments (areas) that are necessary for the proper care and maintenance of horses. The placement of departments is often inefficient due to the slow growth of equine facilities. As a result, facility layout becomes a crucial aspect requiring explicit consideration because mandatory...
The optimal allocation of buffers in serial production systems is one of the oldest and most researched problems in Industrial Engineering. In general, there are three main approaches to the buffer allocation problem when the objective is to maximize throughput. The first is basically a systematic trial and error procedure...
Truckload carriers operating under a Point-To-Point (PtP) dispatching method seek to minimize miles driven with empty loads. This results in driving tours keeping drivers away from their homes for weeks at a time causing high turnover rates industry wide. One proposed solution combines Relay Network dispatching with existing PtP. This...
In a relay network for full truckload (TL) transportation, facilities known as relay points (RPs) serve as exchange points where truck drivers can exchange trailers. This would help carriers to assign more regular tours to drivers when compared to the excessively long tours that exist in the traditional Point-to-Point (PtP)...
In general, making optimal decisions is a never ending challenge that decision makers face. A comprehensive model that integrates decisions at all three levels of decision making (i.e., strategic, tactical, and operational) can help the decision maker to find solutions that best serve the organization's performance. However, as organizations expand...
Intermodal freight transportation uses at least two different transportation modes (e.g., truck, rail, ship, air) to move freight loads that are in the same transportation unit (e.g., a shipping container) from origin to destination without handling the goods themselves. The increasing shift to intermodal transportation and the growth of freight...
Humanitarian logistics in the post-disaster phase of an earthquake requires detailed planning about the relief distribution network including assigning available distribution centers (DCs) to the affected areas, distribution of the relief commodities demanded by the affected population, and efficient allocation of the available vehicle fleet for the distribution in a...
Facility location-allocation decisions and inventory stocking decisions are very important in spare parts logistics. Both sets of decisions affect total costs in the system and the service levels that can be achieved by establishing distances between customers and distribution centers (DCs) in facility location-allocation, and by determining the availability of...
Critical Infrastructures (CIs) such as energy, water supply, telecommunications, and transportation are highly vulnerable to cascading failures due to their interdependent operations. A resilient network is crucial to withstand the impact of functionality loss in disruptive events. This research evaluates network expansion as a proactive resilience strategy in which new...