Establishing new collaborations with academic and industrial communities for container fleet management
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Plymouth
Department Name: Business School
Abstract
Container fleet management, e.g. empties repositioning, has been an on-going issue since the beginning of containerisation. The current EPSRC project focuses on developing an integrated tool to support decision-making including fleet-sizing, leasing, distributing and repositioning. This proposal aims to build new collaborations with academic and industrial communities to enhance the current research portfolio. The new collaborations will complement the existing collaborations by exchanging with leading academics across disciplines, and performing site visits, observations, and pilot applications in industrial companies. New research areas such as inter-company container sharing strategies will be explored, which complements the current focus of intra-company container management policies. It is expected that the project will result in long-term collaborations with partners.
Organisations
Publications
Dong J
(2009)
Container fleet sizing and empty repositioning in liner shipping systems
in Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review
Dong J.-X.
(2008)
Effectiveness of an empty container repositioning policy with flexible destination ports
in Proceedings of International Forum on Shipping, Ports and Airports, IFSPA 2008 - Trade-Based Global Supply Chain and Transport Logistics Hubs: Trends and Future Development
Song D
(2010)
A Fluid Flow Model for Empty Container Repositioning Policy with a Single Port and Stochastic Demand
in SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization
Song D
(2008)
Quantifying the effectiveness of VMI and integrated inventory management in a supply chain with uncertain lead-times and uncertain demands
in Production Planning & Control
Song D
(2010)
Optimal container dispatching policy and its structure in a shuttle service with finite capacity and random demands
in International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics
Song D
(2011)
Effectiveness of an empty container repositioning policy with flexible destination ports
in Transport Policy
Song D
(2009)
Empty container repositioning in liner shipping1
in Maritime Policy & Management
Song D
(2008)
Empty Container Management in Cyclic Shipping Routes
in Maritime Economics & Logistics
Song D
(2008)
Optimal empty vehicle redistribution for hub-and-spoke transportation systems
in Naval Research Logistics (NRL)
| Description | Container fleet management, e.g. empties repositioning, has been an on-going issue since the beginning of containerisation. We have developed a simulation tool to support decision-making including fleet-sizing, leasing, distributing and repositioning. This project enabled us to build new collaborations with academic and industrial communities to enhance our research portfolio. The main achievements include: a new fluid-flow model has been developed through collaborations with leading academics, which complements the current research methodologies; more realistic data were collected and empirical policies were extracted through collaborations with industrial communities, which enhances the model validation and evaluation; new research areas such as inter-company container sharing strategies were investigated, which complements the current focus of intra-company container management policies. The project will leave a legacy of academic and industrial links and collaborations that will pay-back for many years. |
| Exploitation Route | Collaboration with academic researchers and industrial companies. |
| Sectors | Environment Transport |