INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS IN TRANSPORTATION:TRANSPORTATION AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

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1. TRANSPORTATION AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

3.1 Transportation as a System

Designing a transportation system means, in most cases, the design of multiple integrated systems— systems to move goods or people, systems to move information about goods or people, and systems to move funds associated with goods or people. Within each of these three types of systems there may be multiple subsystems.

Today, in the package delivery business, transportation companies offer several types of services in which the primary distinction is the time it takes to move the package from its point of origin to its final destination. Services range from same-day or next-day delivery to multi-week delivery, util- izing different transportation modes such as airplanes, trucks, railcars, boats, and even bicycles. The packages may all originate at the same location (e.g., shipper) going to the same destination, or each package in a shipment may have a different destination. In either case, the transportation systems must be capable of supporting a variety of service offerings, depending on the customer’s needs. The success of such systems is measured by the systems’ effectiveness in meeting the promised service guarantees.

In air travel, the service offerings vary from first class to coach travel. Dividing the aircraft into separate travel compartments allows multiple systems to utilize the same asset, route, flight crew, and schedule to offer variations in service. Therefore, the air travel industry must also utilize multiple integrated systems when designing the processes to facilitate the movement of people.

Providing information about the goods or people being moved also involves the implementation and use of multiple integrated systems. Many customers today provide information about shipments to the carrier at the time of shipment or earlier. This information is introduced into multiple systems for a variety of uses. The shipper has information about the shipment: its contents, the carrier, the mode of transportation, the expected date of arrival, the value of the shipment, shipping charges, and so on. The carrier and shipper can, through integrated systems, track the status of the shipment as it moves to its final destination. Upon delivery, the carrier can provide proof of delivery proactively or upon request. The receiver can be prealerted of the upcoming shipment, its contents, and the expected date and time of arrival. For international shipments, information can be sent to customs before the item is moved to the customs site. The movement and timely availability of all this information increase the efficiency of the modern supply chain.

As with the movement of goods, people, or information, the transfer of funds makes use of integrated systems. The electronic billing of the carrier’s charges to the shipper is integrated with the system providing information about the shipment itself. The payment and transfer of funds to the carrier can be initiated by the pickup or the delivery or through periodic billing cycles. Payments upon delivery for the contents of the shipment can be handled electronically and triggered by the electronic transmission of the signature at delivery.

In designing a transportation system, it is crucial to facilitate the integration of the multiple systems needed for the movement of the goods, people, information, and funds. Industrial engineers are often the catalysts in facilitating such integration.

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