Digital Library of the European Council for Modelling and Simulation

Title:	Simulation Of Multimodal Logistics Networks
Authors:	Christian Hillbrand, Susanne Schmid
Published in:	(2011).ECMS 2011 Proceedings edited by: T. Burczynski, J. Kolodziej, A. Byrski, M. Carvalho. European Council for Modeling and Simulation. doi:10.7148/2011 ISBN: 978-0-9564944-2-9 25^th European Conference on Modelling and Simulation, Jubilee Conference Krakow, June 7-10, 2011
Citation format:	Hillbrand, C., & Schmid, S. (2011). Simulation Of Multimodal Logistics Networks. ECMS 2011 Proceedings edited by: T. Burczynski, J. Kolodziej, A. Byrski, M. Carvalho (pp. 594-600). European Council for Modeling and Simulation. doi:10.7148/2011-0594-0600
DOI:	http://dx.doi.org/10.7148/2011-0594-0600
Abstract:	The partly outsourcing of value creation processes to low-wage countries yields opportunities to cut manufacturing costs dramatically on one hand. On the other hand, these companies incur higher logistics costs due to an increased logistical complexity. Usually the transportation processes are planned in an ad-hoc manner on a local basis. Consequently one can observe a huge majority of all goods being transported directly from plant to plant by unefficient means of transport. One solution for this dilemma would be the joint usage of multimodal logistics systems which is very often inhibited by the need for close cooperation and high coordination efforts. In order to facilitate this process, this paper proposes an approach to use discrete event simulation for supporting the evaluation of different layouts of multi-company multimodal logistics systems. The novelty of this technique is the opportunity to analyze multiple dimensions of a given complex logistics scenario. By contrast to known analytic techniques the methodology not only captures the economic aspect of this issue but is also able to evaluate the ecological and logistical perspective.
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