1,720,999 research outputs found

    System Dynamics Model For The Simulation Of A Non Multi Echelon Supply Chain: Analysis and Optimization Utilizing The Berkeley Madonna Software

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    — In today’s global market, managing the entire supply chain becomes a key factor for a successful business. World-class organizations realize that non-integrated manufacturing and distribution processes together with poor relationships with suppliers and customers are a huge limit for their success. One of the most important aspect affecting the performance of a supply chain is the management of inventories. Inventory management in the supply chain system is quite a complex issue because demand at the upstream stage is dependent on orders from the downstream stage, and the final downstream stage receives orders from the market in uncertain conditions. Uncertainty is one of the major obstacle which limits the creation of an effective supply chain inventory model, able to optimize times and costs. Being the management of a complex inventory model too difficult to analyze with traditional analytical mathematical methods, computer simulation is widely used to study this kind of problems. This paper has the goal of modeling a single echelon supply chain and optimizing its inventories levels so to reduce the bullwhip effect and consequently minimize the supply chain costs. The supply chain here proposed consists of five stages – customer, retailer, wholesaler, distributor and factory – and its modeling is carried out through a system dynamics approach, utilizing the Berkeley Madonna software

    Physical mobility and virtual communication in Italy: Trends, analytical relationships and policies for the post COVID-19

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    People have always moved guided by the need to carry out various activities in different places, including that of meeting and communicating with other people. Over the past two decades, the concept of “communication” has significantly evolved given the introduction of multimedia digital technologies, which have enabled people to communicate without necessarily their physical presence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, “virtual mobility” (or “virtual communication”) played a crucial role in ensuring communications between people in different contexts of social life, growing in few months to previously unforeseeable levels and demonstrating that it can substitute physical movements in many occasions. A smart management of mobility that combines the ability to virtually communicate and the use of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to support physical mobility, can therefore strongly influence people's choice to move or not, and how. Starting from the analysis of physical mobility and virtual communications trends before and during the health emergency in Italy, this paper analyses the relationships between these two forms of communication, evaluating how virtual communication affected the different segments of Italian mobility during the pandemic and how it will affect the way people move in the post COVID-19 period. A SWOT analysis of virtual mobility is performed for each communication segment, with the aim of highlighting its pros and cons, but also future opportunities and possible threats. Some policy indications are also provided in relation to different mobility segments, governance levels (urban, regional and national) and congestion/pollution scenarios, highlighting how virtual mobility can help regulate physical movements, with the ultimate goal of pursuing a safe, sustainable, effective, efficient and connected mobility

    Turin, Rome and Genoa: comparison of the level of maturity of three large Italian cities towards Mobility as a Service

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    Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is the new urban mobility paradigm which, through a digital platform, makes all types of public and private transport services available to users. This contributes to increasing sustainability in cities and the quality of citizens' mobility. However, several factors influence the success of MaaS implementation: openness and data sharing of transport operators; citizens' familiarity and willingness to pay; policy, regulation and legislation; transport services, and infrastructures. Many of these factors are strictly related to the features of the city where MaaS has to operate, and more specifically to its maturity (including multimodality, integration, flexibility, and user-oriented approach). To this end, target users and their willingness to pay for MaaS operations require a specific assessment. This paper compares three large Italian cities - Turin, Rome and Genoa, very different in terms of size, complexity, local transport policies and potential for MaaS application-, with the final goal of outlining common and specific drivers, barriers and requirements for the successful adoption of MaaS. The research findings can provide useful insights to urban mobility decision-makers to avoid the unsuccessful implementation of MaaS, especially when dealing with cities with conservative mobility policies, such as Rome, or where MaaS is a novelty

    A combined data mining – optimization approach to manage trucks operations in container terminals with the use of a TAS: Application to an Italian and a Mexican port

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    This paper relates with the assignment of trucks to time slots in container terminals equipped with Truck Appointment Systems. A two-phase approach is provided: first, export and import containers are matched in tuples with a clustering analysis to reduce the number of empty trips and, then, tuples are assigned to time slots to minimize trucks deviation from their preferred time slots and truck turnaround times. Real case instances related to Mexican and Italian container terminals are tested. Results show that our approach reduces empty-truck trips up to 33.79% and that it can be successfully applied to any container terminal

    Design and simulation of a steel supply chain: the case of Ferrania plant in Bormida valley

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    This paper regards the analysis of the development of a logistics and transportation network concerning a steel plant. The main goal is to search for the best scenario that allows to supply the plant and to distribute all the finished products to final customers in the most efficient way. To this aim, a proper simulation model has been developed and implemented utilizing Logistics Re Designer (Lo. R. D.) software tool. More specifically, three different transportation networks have been created: two "single" modal choice scenarios - by road or by rail and an "intermodal" one. Another system variable regards the production capacity of the steel plant: three different types of capacity have been considered; so in total nine scenarios have been taken into consideration. The results obtained indicate that the intermodal solution is the most suitable to be adopted both in terms of total time and consequently costs - and resources required to perform all the necessary operations. Future research will focus on the improvement of the solution found and on the development of an economical analysis

    Design and simulation of a steel supply chain: the case of Ferrania plant in Bormida valley

    No full text
    This paper regards the analysis of the development of a logistics and transportation network concerning a steel plant. The main goal is to search for the best scenario that allows to supply the plant and to distribute all the finished products to final customers in the most efficient way. To this aim, a proper simulation model has been developed and implemented utilizing Logistics Re Designer (Lo. R. D.) software tool. More specifically, three different transportation networks have been created: two “single” modal choice scenarios - by road or by rail – and an “intermodal” one. Another system variable regards the production capacity of the steel plant: three different types of capacity have been considered; so in total nine scenarios have been taken into consideration. The results obtained indicate that the intermodal solution is the most suitable to be adopted both in terms of total time – and consequently costs - and resources required to perform all the necessary operations. Future research will focus on the improvement of the solution found and on the development of an economical analysis
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