Decision support model for hub localisation - A study at a company in the 3PL industry

• Main Authors: Josefsson, Sara, Medin, Andreas
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Lunds universitet/Teknisk logistik 2012
• Subjects: Facility localisation; optimal hub location; decision support model; Technology and Engineering; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/3048452

Background: With todays’ requirement of shorter product life cycles and faster time-to-market, producing companies experience an increased demand for faster transports in the supply chain. This puts pressure on freight forwarders to offer their customers a timely and reliable transport service at a reasonable price. Another challenge for the freight forwarders in Sweden is to provide such services in all parts of the country. Therefore, the actors in the 3PL industry must find an appropriate design for their transportation network which can enable these transports. This pressure is felt by Company X, which is the Swedish division of one of the largest freight forwarders of road transports in Europe. The network is operated by hauliers and contains of 25 terminals where some of them also function as hubs, which consolidate goods in order to increase the utilization of transports. Company X are now facing problems in meeting the scheduled delivery time for deliveries to northern Sweden. Since Company X strives for meeting its customers’ expectations it is wishful to develop a model based on a set of factors, which can evaluate the localisation of a hub and be a support for future decisions. Moreover, there has not been an evaluation of the main hub and its connected lines in the transportation network for many years. An analysis of the current network according to the model will therefore be conducted to identify the optimal hub localisation. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis consists of two parts; first, to develop a model, which can evaluate the localisation of a hub, and second, to perform an analysis of the current hub location to find an optimal one according to the model. Research questions: The master thesis will answer the following questions to achieve the purpose: - Which factors have to be taken into consideration by Company X when deciding where to locate a hub? - How should the alternative hub localisations be identified and evaluated to arrive at a decision support for an optimal hub ...