The Impact of Load Carrier Types and Staging-Level Designs on Cross-Docking Performance under Uncertainty: A Discrete Event Simulation Study

This research paper focuses on improving the performance of cross-docking operations under uncertainty in the context of e-commerce logistics. The growth of e-commerce sales has increased product returns and complexity to supply chains. To address this issue, this study investigates how cross-docking operations can be improved under external and...

Evaluating the cost effectiveness of logistic strategies for onshore monopile handling in marshalling ports

The global ever growing energy demand, quest for renewable alternatives for fossil fuels and desire to reduce dependency on single countries has driven the increasing demand for offshore wind energy production. The advancing technologies that enable offshore wind turbines to gain efficiency go hand in hand with increasing sizes of components and...

Understanding the Relationship between Lock Complex Effectiveness and System Performance: A Study of the Volkerak Complex

Inland Waterway Transport (IWT) is an untapped resource that can be mobilised to achieve a more sustainable transport system without compromising competitiveness. It outperforms rail and road alternatives in terms of low emissions, costs, high capacity, energy efficiency, freight safety, and security. Waterway locks are ageing assets in IWT...

Determining the most cost-effective electric infrastructure composition and operations to facilitate the electrification of heavy truck fleets for distribution centres in grid congested areas

Emission-free zones are being instituted in cities in the Netherlands to combat the emissions caused by transportation activity causing operators of large commercial vehicle fleets to electrify their vehicle fleet. E-truck fleets need sufficient charging infrastructure and power capacity at the distribution centres they operate from. However,...

Stress testing the Nautical Chain: A Discrete Event Simulation to Improve The Resilience of The Nautical Chain: A Case Study Of The Port Of Rotterdam

Maritime logistics is important for the international volume of trade. Ports are critical in cargo transhipment and provide services to vessels like traffic management, piloting, towage and mooring, which together are called the Nautical Chain since these services are dependent on each other. Due to the importance of maritime logistics, it is...

A New Method of Measuring Overall Warehouse Performance: An Automated E-Commerce Retail Warehouse

E-commerce is rising in demand and sales are forecasted to reach 7.4 trillion dollars by 2025. Many products are shipped to consumers from warehouses directly rather than being displayed in a physical retail store. Smooth and effective warehousing operations are more crucial with the increased dependency on warehouses nowadays. More than 130 key...

A Data-Driven Approach for Generation of Tactical Planning Rules Regarding Buffer Time in Initial Railway Timetables: A Case Study on the Differentiation of Buffer Times in the Railway Timetable of Nederlandse Spoorwegen

Despite advanced communication, monitoring, and control facilities, train operations are still subject to uncertainties that can disturb train services, cause delay to multiple trains, and propagate through the network. One option is to mitigate delay propagation in the timetable design by adding buffer time to the minimum difference between the...

Night-time container transport between port and hinterland using a hub with extended opening hours: A case study for the port of Rotterdam

A rapid increase in international trade volumes during recent years has led to truck congestion at container terminals’ gates during peak hours. This has consequences on the costs of trucking companies waiting long times behind the gates. Furthermore, it leads to containers arriving too late at the hinterland, a lower port attractiveness and...

How coordination of production and warehouse decisions affects the product flow between factories and warehouses for manufacturing firms: Mathematical models and a case study at Kraft Heinz

In practice manufacturing companies have insufficient coordination and synchronisation between production planning and warehousing teams. The lack of coordination regarding production and warehousing decisions in the ordering strategy may result in unforeseen capacity issues at the warehouse due to misalignment between production plans and...

Cost-effectivity of logistical strategies for the installation of offshore wind turbine substructures

The ever-increasing size of offshore wind turbine substructures and the development of wind farms at sites further offshore, with greater water depths and with extremer weather conditions, raise logistical challenges that have never been faced before. Additionally, the offshore wind industry has to deal with governments cutting subsidies, small...

How to lead the transition from multichannel to omnichannel retailing: Address the current challenges and associated indicators with the assistance of a theoretical framework

This thesis focuses on the transition from multichannel to omnichannel retailing. To provide insight into this, the current challenges and related indicators are identified by means of a multiple case study. In addition, a theoretical framework for the omnichannel retailing concept is designed. On the one hand, this will help to increase the...

Policy application to RTI pooler networks for optimized relocation planning: Optimizing RTI pooling management for reducing operational costs and increasing sustainability in supply chains

In this thesis, the optimization of inventory management within RTI pooler networks is considered. The inventory management by RTI poolers consists of the network configurations on which the network relies, as well as the relocation schedule of RTI poolers that determines the functionality of the system.

An investigation of installation strategies to install next-generation offshore wind turbine generator components: Feedering vs. Shuttling, an efficient installation process for the future

Climate change is triggering among others a larger demand for offshore wind energy. This leads to new developments of which larger next-generation Wind Turbine Generators is the most relevant. These next-generation WTGs create problems for the carrying capacity of current-day installation jack-up vessels that work according to the conventional...

Extending Maturity Models With E-Procurement: Measuring and improving purchasing maturity of purchasing and supply management organisations in digital procurement

Digital transformation in procurement is important for Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM) organisations to develop global organisational competitiveness. Generally, procurement performance can be determined and improved through the use of a maturity model. Existing models do not cover the latest (e-)procurement processes (E-Sourcing, Procure...

A framework for assessing the resilience of after-sales service supply chains in the medical equipment industry

As the complexity of global supply chains increases, so does the turbulence and disruption they are suffering from. The medical equipment after-sales service supply chain is closely related to the healthcare industry. Therefore, the ability to provide high levels of customer satisfaction with after-sales services affects not only the performance...

Developing a Framework for the Deployment of Crowd-Shipping: A Study in the Netherlands

The growth in the e-commerce platforms and online shopping has been increasing exponentially in the last decade. Businesses and logistics companies are finding new ways to ensure fast, sustainable, and safe deliveries to customers through existing means. However, to meet the ever increasing demand of deliveries, innovative shipping or delivery...