Article

Milk Run Logistics: Literature Review and Directions

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on Milk Run Logistics and to present an overview of its implementation practices adopted by the manufacturing organizations. The paper also discusses milk run logistics in the procurement system with a special emphasis on the automobile industry. Milk run system is all about logistics support for the supply chain. Milk run system results in reduction in cost of transportation, travelling path and fuel consumption. The effects of the direct shipment on the traffic conditions and on the environment have also been studied. By introducing the milk run logistics under heavily congested traffic conditions, the supplier can have full control on the procurement process. Also, the number of trucks on road can be reduced thus resulting in improvement in traffic conditions. The effect of the milk run logistics on the reduction of CO2 is also discussed. The promotion of Milk-Run logistics can be highly evaluated from the viewpoint of environmental policy.

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... Different company types and sizes implement Just in Time (JIT) or lean production systems to reduce production costs [1,2]. The main idea is to implement pickups and deliveries of goods, meeting fixed time windows, taking into account both the amount of work and the optimization of stock levels [3][4][5]. Logistics need to find a balance between agility, financial costs, and quality of service. ...
... Milk-run is a logistics strategy of good collection/delivery. In this strategy, an empty vehicle goes from a logistics operator to suppliers for collecting goods following a predefined route and returning to the company that requested the service [4,6]. Figure 1 illustrates a Milk-run operation. ...
... This strategy affords an economical transport approach, as it allows the aggregation of small and frequent orders in a single pickup vehicle [7]. In addition to reducing costs, this strategy provides a reduction in traffic and, consequently, in fuel consumption and gas emissions [4,5,8]. Milk-run has widely been used due to the following reasons [4]: ...
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Milk-run tours with time windows are an essential strategy to collect goods to minimize production and transportation costs. Due to unexpected events at the supplier production or traffic congestion, delays can occur during the vehicle route execution, causing non-compliance between the logistics operator and the company. This paper describes the DMRVR (Dynamic Milk-Run Vehicle Routing) solution that uses a dynamic routing algorithm along with fog-based vehicular ad hoc networks for implementing the collection of goods in milk-run operations that respect the company’s time window. When a production delay occurs, the supplier sends a message through the vehicular network to alert the pickup vehicle, forcing it to make dynamic route changes to satisfy the constraints. We have implemented a queue with a timeout and retransmission features to improve the vehicular network’s message delivery. To assess the DMRVR solution, we analyzed the efficiency of the dynamic vehicle routing and the vehicular network impacts. In the experiments, we used an event-based network simulator OMNeT++ bidirectionally coupled with SUMO (Simulation of Urban Mobility), aiming to make the most realistic simulations. Simulation results show the average route time was lower than the time limit imposed by the company with the DMRVR solution. In dense vehicular network scenarios, the message delivery success rate is higher. Conversely, when the vehicular network scenario is sparse, it is necessary to balance network coverage and distribute more RSUs in specific places.
... In JIT production systems, pickup and delivery routes of goods occur in small amounts, subject to a fixed time window, considering the workload level and the reduction of stock levels [3,11,24]. ...
... Milk-run is a collect strategy in which a logistics operator sends a vehicle over specific periods to visit OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) suppliers, following a predefined route to collect goods and deliver them to the company requesting the service [2,24]. The initial milk-run pickup route is created using supplier locations and the number of goods to be collected. ...
... The use of milk-run helps to reduce transportation costs, the number of pickup vehicles and fuel consumption. As a result, apart from cost reduction, an improvement in traffic conditions and a reduction in CO2 emissions can be observed [11,18,24]. Through frequent and small orders, milk-run collections allow an economical transport because they aggregate the orders in a single pickup vehicle [22]. ...
Conference Paper
In the supply chain, the milk-run strategy to collect goods helps reduce transportation costs, generating higher profit margins for the companies that use this strategy. During the collect route execution by a pickup vehicle, delays can occur due to traffic jams or supplier production issues, resulting in non-compliance of agreements between the logistics operator and the contracting company. This work aims to describe a solution to provide dynamic vehicles routing for collecting goods in milk-run operations, using vehicular ad hoc networks and fog computing. When a supplier delay occurs, a message is disseminated in the vehicular network to warn the pickup vehicle, then it makes changes in the collect route to attend the constraints. With the use of fog computing, every decision-making is made without the use of the Internet, reducing logistics operation costs.
... Once occupied, the truck returns to the depot. This operation occurs in a frequent manner [2]. There are two main types of milk-run as shown in Figure 1. ...
... The purpose of milk-run problems in the literature has been to reduce the loading rates in cross-docking, reduce the number of used trucks, reduce lateness of truck arrival time, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions as shown in a literature survey by Brar [2]. Several studies address the modeling and optimization of the milk-run problems. ...
... The objective function (1) minimizes the lateness time of truck arrival at vendor. The total number of truck visits in each day at each vendor should satisfy the demand as shown in (2). The US transportation requirements for truck drivers are handled in (3) and (4). ...
Conference Paper
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The notion of milk-run has recently gained popularity in the literature and practice as it focuses on reducing transportation cost and achieving just-in-time delivery of materials. In this paper, we propose a novel mathematical formulation of the milk-run problem and a genetic algorithm (GA). In our formulation, we consider the current rules and regulations in the US transportation industry, such as the maximum allowed traveling and working hours. Also, we consider the case when the shipment size at each vendor is one trailer and the deliveries have a time window. Moreover, we show that the proposed milk-run approach can achieve cost savings and reduce the transportation planning efforts based on a case study of a third-party logistics firm (3PL) in the US.
... Two areas of works that is closely related to ours are the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) [18,19] and Milk Run Logistics [20,21]. VRP aims to provide optimal set of routes for a fleet of vehicles to fulfil logistics demands. ...
... It has many variants, including VRP with Time Windows [22,23], Capacitated VRP [24,25], green VRP [26,27] and ride-sharing VRP [28,29]. While Milk Run Logistics is essentially a logistics method that uses routing to consolidate the transportation of goods that has the following characteristics: small lot of transport, less than truckload, geographically sparse demands [20], as illustrated in Figure 2. As shown in Figure 2, milk run model reduces the excess capacity by consolidating the deliveries from different companies (i.e. Company X and Company Y). ...
... This method became very popular in the manufacturing industry and the manufacturers started creating a collection of routes to the suppliers (Hosseini et al. 2014b;Lin et al. 2015). A vehicle is sent from the manufacturer's facility to visit different suppliers, collect the products and return to the origin location (Brar and Saini 2011). Therefore, the milk-run term often refers to pickup routes (Brar and Saini 2011;Hosseini et al. 2014b;Lin et al. 2015). ...
... A vehicle is sent from the manufacturer's facility to visit different suppliers, collect the products and return to the origin location (Brar and Saini 2011). Therefore, the milk-run term often refers to pickup routes (Brar and Saini 2011;Hosseini et al. 2014b;Lin et al. 2015). ...
Article
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In the retail industry, there are multiple products flowing from different distribution centers to brick-and-mortar stores with distinct characteristics. This industry has been suffering radical changes along the years and new market dynamics are making distribution more and more challenging. Consequently, there is a pressure to reduce shipment sizes and increase the delivery frequency. In such a context, defining the most efficient way to supply each store is a critical task. However, the supply chain planning decision that tackles this type of problem, delivery mode planning, is not well defined in the literature. This paper proposes a definition for delivery mode planning and analyzes multiple ways retailers can efficiently supply their brick-and-mortar stores from their distribution centers. The literature addressing this planning problem is reviewed and the main interdependencies with other supply chain planning decisions are discussed.
... The automobile industry is one of the pioneers in implementing milk run logistics, primarily in the upstream of supply chain where manufacturers pick up parts from suppliers to support production processes. Numerous companies including Toyota in both Japan and the United States, Shanghai GM in China, Volkswagen and Jaguar Land Rover in Europe, Turk Tractor in Turkey, and an automotive manufacturer in Indonesia have implemented and benefited from milk run logistics over the years [3]. Although the most accessible benefit is in transportation cost through reduction in traveled miles, there are other substantial benefits in areas such as inventory holding cost, CO 2 emissions, and truck utilization (load factor). ...
... Ricoh Express doubled loading efficiency from 30% to 65% by implementing optimized milk run transportation. They significantly shortened travel distances which resulted in 35% reduction in CO 2 emissions [3]. In the retail sector, a study of 750 stores in Japan showed that a milk run delivery system that consolidates vendor shipments to retail stores in Tokyo can reduce the number of truck deliveries by 5.5% [4]. ...
Conference Paper
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Multi-Stop Truckload (MSTL) is becoming increasingly popular among shippers (i.e. companies that need their products transported) for shipping less than truckload (LTL). According to a dataset from CH Robinson, the business share of MSTL has increased from 6.42% in 2013 to 7.39% in 2015. This is due to its cost savings potential, shorter transit time, reduced damages, more certain delivery time, and positive environmental impacts. At the same time, carriers have become more cautious about accepting multi-stop load tenders because they tend to impose extra travel distance, higher cost of operation, longer detention time for drivers, and disruptive effects on the flow balance of the carriers’ transportation routes. This paper proposes a multi objective decision model that identifies the best two-stop routes that maximize the cost savings for the shipper and fulfill the most important load acceptance criteria of the carriers. The model provides a trade-off capability for selecting routes with more appeal to either shipper or carrier.
... Milk run pada logistik merujuk pada suatu sistem pengiriman atau pengumpulan barang yang dirancang untuk mencakup beberapa sumber atau destinasi dalam satu perjalanan efisien (Brar & Saini, 2011). Istilah "milk run" berasal dari praktik pengiriman susu di pedesaan, di mana truk pengangkut susu akan mengumpulkan susu dari beberapa peternak dalam satu perjalanan. ...
Article
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This study aims to explore the impact of implementing the Milk Run method in supply chain of plastic industry in PT RPI. By reducing the distance of 48 km per day, equivalent to 1,200 km in a month of deliveries, the research highlights significant changes in logistics’ efficiency, cost savings, and carbon emission reduction. More connected travel patterns allow trucks to combine pick-ups or deliveries of multiple sources in single trip to enhance the overall logistics’ efficiency. Reducing the distance contributes to saving transportation’s cost by lowering fuel consumption and maintaining vehicle expenses. Reducing a 1,200 km distance, assumed that a fuel consumption rate of 7 km per liter and a carbon emission rate of 2.68 kg CO2 per liter, could result in a substantial carbon emission reduction. This study provides a foundation for further research, including route and scheduling optimization, in-depth environmental impact analysis, and Milk Run implementation in other industries. The findings offer a comprehensive overview of Milk Run effectiveness in the plastic industry, emphasize operational advantages, economic impact, and commitment to sustainability.
... In this type of transportation, trucks collect products from one or more suppliers and deliver them to one or more points. In Milk-Run industrial operations, it is expressed as carrying out the special flow of materials delivered from manufacturers (sub-industry) to factories according to the customers' production schedule on a daily basis, with a planning according to the constraints of both parties (production, stock and goods acceptance) [1]. If we talk about the goals determined by the supplier within the scope of this planning; ...
Article
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Milk-Run system is a logistics supply method that aims to combine and place the products or materials required by companies into vehicles in the most efficient way. This system collects goods from multiple suppliers and ensures that vehicles are filled at an optimum level. It ensures controlled management of transactions with regular reporting, continuous monitoring and automatic information e-mails. Within the scope of the study, important processes related to the Milk-Run management process were emphasized and the reasons for the application were highlighted. Logistics and supply chain have played important roles in supporting the operations of businesses aiming to meet customers' demands. It is a sustainable management model that helps all businesses that implement it reduce their costs, optimize their processes and reduce their carbon footprint.
... In a milk run system, routes, schedules, and the type and number of pieces to be transported are assigned to different tasks. The benefits of using such a system include increased efficiency of the overall logistics system as well as substantial potential savings in environmental and human resources along with notable cost advantages related to inventory and transportation costs [31,32,33], where the problems of milk run systems [34] can be seen as a special case of the vehicle routing problem (VRP) [35,36]. ...
Article
The collection of information through a questionnaire for planning purposes played an important role in defining the requirements of the web system, functioning as a fundamental basis for the next step in the software development phase. The application of the Kanban way of thinking has proven to be effective in managing work, supported by greater openness during the system creation phase. The surveys and interviews carried out show that the initiative is important and necessary to improve decision-making and processes. The incorporation of Kanban principles is based on an exhaustive analysis using tools such as PHP, Bootstrap and MySQL to facilitate the process and achieve maximum efficiency. Through the web-based system, it is possible to centralize information, allowing its access and management in real time. Business intelligence is also used to perform in-depth analysis, helping to identify patterns and potential opportunities for improvement. It was considered appropriate to choose the Kanban methodology due to its collaborative and incremental approach, ideal for adapting to change and providing constant value. The results confirm the solidity of our methodology and the relevance of the choices made in the development of this web application based on Business Intelligence and Agile Kanban Methodology.
... There are two different milk-run systems in the literature: the supplier milk-run system and the in-plant milkrun system (Baudin 2005). With the supplier milk-run system, goods are collected from external suppliers and delivered to the customer following a predefined route (Brar and Saini 2011;Eroglu et al. 2014). On the other hand, the in-plant milk-run system helps in the cyclical delivery of materials from the warehouse to the assembly lines in the plants (Bocewicz et al. 2019). ...
Article
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Milk-run is a cyclic material delivery system, that aims to increase the efficiency of transportation and supply chain considering the lean logistics aspect. There are two types of milk-run systems in the literature: supplier and in-plant milk-run. The in-plant milk-run system, which has attracted increasing attention with the Industry 4.0 concept, is applied to manage the delivery process of materials from the warehouse to the assembly stations in plants. This system can be implemented using Autonomous Vehicles (AV), which provide automated material handling. However, a challenging problem appears in determining milk-run routes and periods simultaneously for each AV. Furthermore, this problem becomes more difficult in the presence of assembly stations with buffer stock constraints requiring multi-commodity pickup and delivery demands. In this study, the Simulated Annealing algorithm was used due to the Np-Hard nature of the problem. Hence, we generated test instances to show the performance of the proposed algorithm. It is seen that the proposed algorithm is efficient in terms of computational times as well as determining both milk-run routes and periods.
... The milk-run material supply system optimizes overall transportation costs in a logistics network, contributing to a decrease in carbon emissions. A study (Brar & Saini, 2011), indicates that, even in highly dense traffic conditions, milk run logistics can be more effective, optimizing the number of trucks and reducing vehicles on the road. This reduction in vehicle utilization leads to a decrease in carbon emissions. ...
Article
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The study focuses on optimizing urban distribution in the dairy industry, specifically at Bhopal Sanchi dairy, to enhance efficiency and minimize costs. It evaluates existing routes, identifies inefficiencies , and proposes new distribution strategies. By implementing these changes, significant improvements are achieved, reducing total distribution costs and dead kilometers while improving vehicle capacity utilization. The study emphasizes the importance of addressing urban distribution challenges to meet increasing milk demand efficiently. It contributes to developing sustainable dairy distribution systems by optimizing costs and minimizing losses. ArcGIS software is utilized for route and fleet optimization analysis. Overall, the research addresses the critical need for efficient urban dairy distribution, particularly in India's context as a major milk producer. ARTICLE HISTORY
... It can be used at any of the levels considered by Lean Logistics: inbound logistics (from supplier to factory), in-plant logistics (in the factory) and outbound logistics (from factory to the customer) [3,4]. The method in the area of inbound logistics processes within manufacturing companies is to deliver components from a central warehouse [5] or supermarket system [6] to workstation deposit points ( Fig. 1) frequently but in small quantities [7,8]. ...
... Untuk mengimplementasikan metode tersebut, perusahaan harus menentukan nilai tertinggi atau nilai maksimum dari saving matrix [10]. Setelah menentukan nilai maksimum, perusahaan dapat merancang dan mengimplementasikan rute pengiriman berdasarkan hasil analisis, mengoptimalkan biaya pengiriman barang [11]. ...
Article
PT. MOJOTRAS di wilayah Surabaya, Sidoarjo, dan Gresik menggunakan metode Milk-run. Metode ini memanfaatkan data permintaan pelanggan, jarak antar lokasi, dan kapasitas kendaraan sebagai acuan untuk mengoptimalkan supply chain perusahaan. Dalam penelitian ini, metode Milk-run ditambahkan sebagai solusi optimal dalam mengatasi kurangnya optimalisasi biaya pengiriman. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa metode Milk-run memungkinkan pembagian kompartemen pada kapasitas truk untuk 4 tujuan setiap destinasi. Setiap pembagian kompartemen disesuaikan menurut data permintaan, dengan batasan kompartemennya berisi 105 pcs untuk kardus kemasan air mineral gelas, 105 pcs untuk produk air mineral kemasan 330 ml, 105 pcs untuk botol 600 ml, dan 105 pcs untuk botol 1500 ml. Jadi sebagai batas kapasitas rata-rata truk CDD wingbox adalah 420 pcs.
... By allowing the empty truck to return to pick up the goods after delivery, cost saving can be achieved [58][59][60]. The combination of linehauls and backhauls has proven very valuable to the logistics and distribution industry (e.g., the concept of "milk run") through the successful application of VRPB [61]. ...
Article
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The vehicle routing problem (VRP), as a classic combinatorial optimization problem, has always been a hot research topic in operations research. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the VRP problem, this work uses the knowledge graph to comprehensively analyze and summarize the literature related to VRP from 1959 to 2022 in the Web of Science (WoS) database. Firstly, according to the basic statistical information of the literature, the annual publications, the authors, their institutions and countries, the keyword co-occurrence, and the literature co-citation network are analyzed to comprehensively summarize and generalize the research on VRP and predict its future development trend. The results show that, in the past 60 years, there have been abundant changes in the research on VRP. The United States and China have made the most important contributions in the field of VRP. According to the WoS literature retrieval results and classification methods, the VRP models and their solutions are comprehensively classified, and the model solving algorithms are divided into exact algorithms, heuristic algorithms, metaheuristic algorithms, hyper-heuristic algorithms, machine learning, etc. The results show that the development of information computing technology plays an important role in research on the VRP problem, and dynamic VRP, hyper-heuristic algorithms, deep reinforcement learning, etc. are the future development directions of the VRP model and its optimization. The results of this research can provide help and guidance for beginners and scholars outside the industry to comprehensively understand the development and research hotspots of VRP.
... Equations (21)- (24) show the range constraints for the decision variables. Additionally, our model can avoid high congestion by adding more variables and constraints. ...
Article
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Truck platooning has recently become an essential issue in automatic driving. Though truck platooning can increase safety and reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions, the practical vehicle routing problem involved in truck platooning has not been sufficiently addressed. Therefore, we design a mixed-integer linear programming model for the routing problem in truck platooning considering the deadline of vehicles, continuous-time units, different fuel reduction rates, traffic congestion avoidance, and heterogeneous vehicles. In addition, a forward–backward heuristic called the “greedy heuristic” is presented for reasonable computation time. To validate the model’s performance, several parameters, such as the percentage of fuel reduction, percentage of detour vehicles, and percentage of platooned links (road segments), are considered. Additionally, various cases are considered with varying fuel reduction rates, traffic flow rates, and time windows.
... According to the study, there have been 14 disruptive innovations in the DSC. Multiple stages, activities, and supply chain procedures have been made more efficient via these technologies [28,62]. There were 16 physical and computerized innovations that the writers of the publications we were involved in examined, as indicated in Table 3. ...
Article
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Background: The global dairy market is experiencing a massive transition as dairy farming has recently undergone modernization. As a result, the dairy industry needs to improve its operational efficiencies by implementing effective optimization techniques. Conventional and emerging optimization techniques have already gained momentum in the dairy industry. This study’s objective was to explore the optimization techniques developed for or implemented in the dairy supply chain (DSC) and to investigate how these techniques can improve the DSC. Methods: A systematic review approach based on PRISMA guidelines were adopted to conduct this review. The authors used descriptive statistics for statistical analysis. Results: Modernization has led the dairy industry to improve its operational efficiencies by implementing the most effective optimization techniques. Researchers have used mathematical modeling-based methods and are shifting to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) -based approaches in the DSC. The mathematical modeling-based techniques remain dominant (56% of articles), but AI and ML-based techniques are gaining traction (used in around 44% of articles). Conclusions: The review findings show insight into the benefits and implications of optimization techniques in the DSC. This research shows how optimization techniques are associated with every phase of the DSC and how new technologies have affected the supply chain.
... Milk-Run is a generic name for a logistics procurement method that uses routing to consolidate goods [71]. It also refers to a method of product collection and delivery in which the seller dispatches one truck at a specified time to visit various addresses following a predefined route to deliver collect products and could be a way to optimize logistics. ...
Article
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The purpose of this study is to trace the processes behind the elaboration of the product page and map the shopping journey to identify ways to reduce returns. This is a qualitative study conducted in three stages: exploratory interviews with users, semi-structured interviews with e-commerce and logistics specialists, and directed storytelling sessions with users. Our findings indicate that the e-commerce specialists are not fully aware of the impacts caused by the high return rates, and product presentation pages are therefore not elaborated to provide users with all the information necessary to make accurate purchases. Sellers should improve product presentation pages to increase product knowledge by providing tools to enhance quality mental imagery. Additionally, sellers should inform consumers of the impact of their shipping options and returning habits. There are ways to optimize logistics processes to reduce the environmental impact. Prior research has addressed these issues separately. Besides, have addressed mental imagery to increase sales. This study brings a holistic approach and brings mental imagery as a tool to provide users with more information about a product.
... This seems easy to say but it is very difficult to achieve. For this, many Lean Logistic tools must be implemented such as supermarkets, milkrun, suitable productive activity control systems such as Kanban, well designed border of line and containers, among others [12], [29]. ...
... Within this thesis, we focus on the inbound case. Brar and Saini (2011) define milkrun logistics in the inbound case as a procurement method in which a truck is dispatched from a central depot at a specified time to visit various suppliers following a predefined route to collect parts or products and deliver them to the central depot (see Figure 4.6). Main advantages of milk-run logistics are: ...
Thesis
The aeronautic industry is characterized by small production rates compared to others industries as the automotive industry for example. Due to small production volumes, manufacturers are often in a weak position in relation to their suppliers (they represent an insignificant part of the turnover of their suppliers) in this industry. This results in a constraining supply chain network configuration. Furthermore, in several cases in the aeronautic industry, suppliers manage inbound transportation, and there’s no visibility over transportation operations. Taking into account these characteristics, the objective of this Ph.D. was to develop optimization and modelling tools that support inbound Supply Chain Network Design (SCND) by minimizing total cost and reducing CO2 emissions in the aeronautic industry and industries with similar characteristics. Airbus Helicopters (AH) is a division of Airbus, a leader in the aeronautic industry. In the last years, the launching of a new range of helicopters at AH has been the occasion to innovate inbound supply chain design process. Taking into account the Airbus transformation context and the objective of this study, we conducted a case study at AH. First of all, we analysed the current AH supply chain. This analysis allowed us to identify 4 optimization axes for our case: transportation lot sizing, transportation mode selection, cross-dock location and milk run concept. In the first part of the Ph.D. we developed an optimization model per optimization axis, with the aim of minimizing total costs, without including explicitly CO2 emissions. Using these models we built an optimized inbound supply chain solution for AH. As a result, by optimizing transportation lot sizes, extending the possibility of using sea freight for all the North America suppliers, implementing a cross-docking facility at Toulouse and implementing a cross-docking facility New York with multimodal road-sea transportation from there to Airbus, total cost and CO2 emissions could be reduced by 46% and 47% respectively. In the last part of this study, we included explicitly CO2 emissions in our cross-dock location model, we studied North American suppliers’ relocation, electric transportation and drone’s delivery. As a result, by implementing a cross-docking facility at New-York, and a cross-docking facility at Paris with multimodal rail-road transportation from there to Airbus, cost and CO2 emissions could be reduced by 41% and 56% respectively. By relocating North American suppliers in France, and implementing the cross-docking facility at Paris with multimodal rail-road transportations, cost and CO2 emissions could be reduced by 44% and 63% respectively. Finally based on literature review, we showed that the electrification of the road fleet of Airbus in the future would reduce significantly road CO2 emissions (at least 30% reduction in the case of hydrogen fuel cells) caused by fuel combustion and would eliminate them in the case of battery electric light duty vehicles. Regarding drones delivery, this solution could reduce CO2 emissions by 0,005% per year. However, this reduction is not significant compared to the implementation effort required.
... Reuse of Glass Bottles: In the (very) old days, a milkman would deliver fresh milk to people's homes and collect their empty bottles on the same trip [46]. The concept of recycling may, at first, seem like taking a step backwards in time, with citizens ceding a bit of the convenience of modern day life. ...
Article
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Last-mile logistics is both a source and cause of problems in urban areas, especially problems related to traffic congestion, unsustainable delivery modes, and limited parking availability. In this context, multiple sustainable logistics solutions have been proposed. We focus on micro-depots (MDs), which can function as a consolidation center and a collection-and-delivery point for business-to-consumer (B2C) small parcels. This paper presents a new research idea that extends the existing MD solution by introducing the concept of a shared MD network with parcel lockers. Such networks enable multiple logistics service providers (LSPs) and/or business partners to use an MD while minimizing their individual costs and optimizing the use of urban space. We present case studies of such shared MD networks operating in the cities of Helsinki and Helmond. We provide a framework for auxiliary businesses that can exploit the existing MD structure to offer services to the surrounding population. Finally, we define metrics for evaluating the success of shared MD networks while considering social, environmental and economic objectives. The case studies highlight the complexity of implementing such a solution; it requires stakeholders’ involvement and collaboration. In particular, deciding on the location for a shared MD network is a critical phase, since local authorities have their own regulations, and residents’ preferences are usually different than LSPs’ ones. Nevertheless, if these challenges are overcome, this sustainable last-mile logistics solution has a promising future.
... e "milk run" is a well-known concept that is obtained from the achievements with VRPB. By applying milk runs, transportation costs and total travel distance can be significantly reduced, and the vehicle loading rate is increased [18]. e other avenue related with TVRSPD is the transshipment problem. ...
Article
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Distribution centers (DCs) typically receive orders from the customers (mostly retail stores) located in their vicinity and deliver the ordered goods the next day morning. To maintain high item fill rate, DCs have to hold a high level of inventory, which will increase inventory cost. As an alternative, cross-filling is that, after closing the daily order receipt, DCs exchange surplus items during the night to reduce the shortage. The economic justification of such cross-filling will depend on the tradeoff between extra transshipment and handling cost versus saved shortage cost. In this paper, as an extension of Rim and Jiang, 2019, vehicles are allowed to drop and pick up items at the intermediate DCs in the route. We present a genetic algorithm to determine the routes and amount to pick up/drop at each DC to minimize the total cost.
... Associated with the OEM production process, logistics operators usually adopt the milk-run scheme to collect components and parts from supplying partners, and transport them to the central firm production line, over planned routes. Trucks are dispatched at specified time periods, visiting a number of suppliers to collect components or sub-products [12][13][14]. ...
Chapter
In an OEM milk-run pickup operation over a road network, the manufacturing of components by suppliers is subject to varying tardiness levels on order release dates. Such faults are traditionally diagnosed and treated with a “fail and fix” strategy (FAF), when a failure is recognized as a sudden disruption problem. In practice, quite often a degradation phase occurs in the manufacturing process before a disruption happens. But, within the Industry 4.0 paradigm, it is necessary to prevent faults that may occur at some time in the future, changing the traditional FAF response to a robust predicting and preventing strategy. In such a context, faults must be forecasted in a dynamic way, over a Big Data basis, and the resulting forecasts must be released at once to the logistics agent to allow him to review his milk-run collecting program in due time, thus leading to a better integrated performance. An approximate method to forecast tardiness levels in supplier’s production, intended to help the related logistic operators to reschedule their services in due time, is proposed and illustrated with a case study.
... There are two different milk-run systems as supplier milk-run and in-plant milk-run system in the literature [6]. With the supplier milk-run system, goods are collected from external suppliers and delivered to a customer by following a predefined route [13], [14]. On the other hand, inplant milk-run system helps to deliver materials from warehouse to assembly lines in plants in an easier and possibly shorter way. ...
... Jiang et al. (2010) provided an optimization-based approach to satisfy high-frequency, small quantity deliveries. Brar and Saini (2011), who reviewed the literature on milk-run logistics and presented an overview of its implementation practices adopted by manufacturing organizations. Hosseini et al. (2014) developed a novel integer programming model to transport goods in a consolidation network and proposed a hybrid method of harmony search and simulated annealing based heuristics to solve their problem. ...
Article
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In recent years, the automotive industry has faced an unprecedented crisis. In particular, the zero-inventory approach, which has been widely pursued by many automobile companies, seems to be impractical in some real production contexts since it requires an inventory of all parts but in low amounts. In this paper, we investigate a new logistics method which collects automobile parts by integrating the progress-lane (P-LANE) into the corresponding vehicle routing problem. We propose a mixed integer programming formulation for this new model, which can simultaneously determines the trip routes to collect automobile parts, as well as the P-LANE that each collected part should be assigned to, so as to minimize the total costs of the production and inbound logistics. The comparison with the zero-inventory model shows that the use of the P-LANE within the milk-run system could significantly decrease the total costs and also improve the transportation efficiency. To be specific, for small and large size instances, the total costs of the zero-inventory model are about 10% and 30% higher than the ones with P-LANE, respectively, which suggests that the periodic part collection model with P-LANE could be more appropriate for automobile manufacturing.
... Burada kamyonlar, önceden belirlenen rotalara uygun olarak sütle dolu şişeleri kapılara taşırlar ve süt tesisine geri götürmek için boş şişeleri toplarlar (You ve Jiao, 2014). Buradan esinlenerek kullanılan milk-run malzeme tedarik sistemi, bir taşıyıcı tarafından önceden belirlenen bir rotaya göre tedarikçilerden parça veya ürün toplama ve bunları ana firmaya taşıma yöntemidir (Brar ve Saini, 2011). Milk-run sistemi, iç ve dış lojistikte malzeme tedariği için sıklıkla kullanılmaktadır. ...
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... Furthermore, this option is also used to serve components to other steps (agents) in the SC. In particular, milk-run routes in lean environments are used for lot size reduction, increased frequency of delivery, and levelled flow (Brar and Saini 2011). ...
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Based on the analysis of the pertinent literature, we propose a framework to serve as a guide in designing a distribution network as a component of a supply chain (SC). It consists of three steps that are common to goods and services SCs: position of the decoupling point, structure of the network, and product delivery. For each step, we take into account the peculiarities of both goods and services separately in order to establish a list of available options and evaluate their suitability in relation to the relevant factors that characterise the products and the markets.
... VRPBs are scrutinized in detail by Parragh et al. (2008). Problems with mixed backhauls and linehauls are referred to as "milk run" and are of great concern to the industry which results in significant decrease in costs and total travel distance (Brar and Saini, 2011). Time windows are defined in the context of VRPPD and were first introduced by Knight and Hofer (1968) and Pullen and Webb (1967). ...
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to deal with the transportation of a high number of injured people after a disaster in a highly populated large area. Each patient should be delivered to the hospital before the specific deadline to survive. The objective of the study is to maximize the survival rate of patients by proper assignment of existing emergency vehicles to hospitals and efficient generation of vehicle routes. Design/methodology/approach The concepts of non-fixed multiple depot pickup and delivery vehicle routing problem (MDPDVRP) is utilized to capture an image of the problem encountered in real life. Due to NP-hardness of the problem, a hybrid genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed as the solution method. The performance of the developed algorithm is investigated through a case study. Findings The proposed hybrid model outperforms the traditional GA and also is significantly superior compared to the nearest neighbor assignment. The required time for running the algorithm on a large-scale problem fits well into emergency distribution and the promptness required for humanitarian relief systems. Originality/value This paper investigates the efficient assignment of emergency vehicles to patients and their routing in a way that is most appropriate for the problem at hand.
... The Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control (DMAIC) methodology is used to structure our approach. This allows us to work through the improvement process step-by-step, train that starts from the warehouse, visits the work stations associated with its route to distribute the required material and returns to the starting point periodically (Brar and Saini 2011). A milk run can be applied to the internal or external supply chain of a company, with its main focus to date being on the external supply chain. ...
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The article describes the implementation of the methodology of simulation modeling of the milk-run system in a theoretical company. The article describes the hybrid approach in creating simulation models. It presents the basic steps of methodology, tools supporting the process of building a simulation model and analyzing internal logistics system. The goal of the study is to verify the methodology and outline the direction of its development. The final part of the article presents the directions in developing simulation tools for advanced ergonomic analysis.
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The article describes the methodology of simulation modeling of milk-run systems supplemented with an ergonomic analysis. In the literature analysis, the authors define what is the milk-run system, describes the benefits of implementation milk-run as an internal transport system, and explain the use of DES and ABS approaches to modeling. The article describes the tools used in the hybrid simulation modeling of the milk-run system and various stages of its application. The authors describe the ergonomic analysis of logistics employees work as the direction for further development of methodology. The last part of the article describes the necessity of developing tools for advanced ergonomic analyses and exemplary methods, which could be implemented. One selected method, that allowed to determine the maximum weight of the goods transported by the operator is also described.
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This chapter describes the author’s method of designation of optimal number of trailers for milk-run system. Designated method is created based on MS Excel. In the literature analysis, authors describe milk-run intralogistics systems, advantages and disadvantages of this system, and the issue related to determining the optimum number of means of transport. Described developed method defines several basic steps leading to determining the optimal number of trailers, based on the specificity of the production system, the size, and distribution of demand, the characteristics of the selected trailers types and the size of transport containers. In described approach, authors also include the determination of the size and frequency of deliveries, based on the specificity of the orders from workstations and the arrangement of the bus stops. All stages of the analysis are presented based on the example of the selected theoretical production system. The goal of determination of optimal number of trailers is minimizing the cost of purchasing vehicles, ensuring safe, timely, and efficient supplies of parts to individual locations, while minimizing traffic congestion and the achievement of proper use of available labor resources.
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Simulation is a successful tool for designing new transport systems and improvements. The milk-run is popular material-handling system in manufacturing companies. Designing, modeling and analyzing of milk-run system is often a big challenge for the designer due to its complexity and dynamics. The paper focuses on Yamazumi charts as a tool for analysis and work balancing of logistics train operator. The mechanism for automatic generation of Yamazumi charts is built with use simulation technology. In article authors describes important step of methodology of designing the Milk-Run systems and initial version of tool for verification and improvement of such systems.
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This paper describes an interactive layout as the tool for redesign of intralogistics systems. The need of interactive layout was presented in context of Industry 4.0, Layout Planning and simulation. Material handling system, material flow and distance travel of material improve productivity and operational efficiency of production systems. The paper focuses on the approach based on milkrun systems. The main foundations of interactive layout such as workstation as basic object, addressing system, using templates, core 3D simulation are described. Proposed solution was implemented in FlexSim Discrete Events System environment.
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The objective of this study is to investigate an optimal vehicle routing scheme to perform an OEM milk-run pickup service over a regional road network. The manufacturing of components is subject to varying tardiness among suppliers when fulfilling OEM orders. This often leads to non-accomplished orders at the end of the vehicle cycle time since the transport operation, predominantly composed by random variables, must comply with a strict delivery time limit set up by the OEM company. The mathematical model searches for the optimal vehicle routing sequence, together with searching for the best tardiness tolerance level that minimizes the sum of penalty costs levied against faulty suppliers, and transport expenses.
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This paper describe concept of intelligent logistic for automotive industry created with value stream mapping. Automotive industry has been facing big impact of economic crisis in last years. European Commission prepared initiative to improve use of technology in automotive industry called Factories of the Future. This concept is using fourteen interrelated technology pillars to reach this goal. Application of this concept into automotive industry offer for company opportunity to be factory of the future with high level of competitiveness advantage.
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Dynamic vehicle routing problems have received increasing attention in the literature due to the rapid IT evolution as well as advances in computing and modelling techniques. In areas subject to critical and often unpredictable traffic congestions, logistics operators often allocate excessive number of collecting tasks to their vehicles, generating unperformed activities due to OEM JIT time constraints and thus violating contractual obligations assumed with their clients. In this paper, a dynamic OEM picking-up (milk-run) routing problem is analysed, in which tasks that likely will exceed the time limit in a route are assigned to supplementary vehicles, thus forming auxiliary dynamic routes formed with the transferred tasks originated from the regular trucks. To solve the problem, a genetic algorithm model was developed in association with a simulation program intended to define some relevant probabilistic parameters. The results have shown that the dynamic formulation considerably improves the service level when compared with the static version.
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Recently, Japanese automobile manufacturers are trying to procure parts by the so-called Milk-Run logistics at most of their foreign factories. The case study on Japanese automobile manufactures in Thailand revealed that by introducing the Milk-Run logistics even under heavily congested traffic conditions, they can have full control of the procurement process, resulting in a reduction of the number of trucks dispatched and improvements in traffic conditions to some extent in urban areas. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
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The latter part of the twentieth century saw the lean production paradigm positively impact many market sectors ranging from automotive through to construction. In particular there is much evidence to suggest that level scheduling combined with the elimination of muda has successfully delivered a wide range of products to those markets where cost is the primary order winning criteria. However, there are many other markets where the order winner is availability. This has led to the emergence of the agile paradigm typified by “quick response” and similar initiatives. Nevertheless, “lean” and “agile” are not mutually exclusive paradigms and may be married to advantage in a number of different ways. This paper explores ways in which hybrid strategies can be developed to create cost-effective supply chains and proposes an integrated manufacture/logistics model for enabling the essential infrastructure.
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In the retail industry, the systems used to deliver merchandise and the number of truck deliveries required can vary significantly, depending on the retail segment and the individual store. Merely by addressing stores where the number of deliveries per unit of floor space is more than one standard deviation above the average for their sector, and reducing the number to a level matching the sector average, we calculate that truck deliveries could be reduced by 2,700 per day. This would be a very significant change, and it is equivalent to around 5.5% of the total number of truck deliveries to large retail stores in Tokyo.
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In this paper, a multi-criterion decision making (MCDM) model for outsourcing logistics services in the Turkish automotive industry is presented. In the paper, the logistics requirements of the automotive companies and the role of the third-party logistics (3PL) services in the automotive industry are reviewed. The concept of milk run and its benefits are explained. The current situation of the Turkish automotive industry and agricultural tractors segment is analyzed. An argument for outsourcing 3PL services for Turk Traktor Fabrikası (TTF: Turkish Tractor Plant) is developed. An analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model is created to select the best 3PL provider among four candidates. The model is used to evaluate the alternatives. Finally, the outcome and the implications of the model for implementation are discussed.
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Logistics and supply chain management are an integral part of business activity today. They are crucial drivers of globalization as well. As such, these activities are responsible for a large share of greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, transportation in the United States is the business sector which contributes the most human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. This chapter will discuss the role of logistics and supply chain management in the generation of such pollutants and examine methods to mitigate this byproduct of modern business activity. It will be shown that a series of trade-offs exist which are complex in nature and require careful consideration when confronting environmental concerns.
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Vehicle Routing Problems (VRP) play an important role in distribution management that aims to minimize transportation cost and the number of vehicles. Vehicle routing and scheduling of pick up problem is a complex problem so that appropriated method to produces the optimal solution of it is needed. Many methods can be used to solve these kinds of problems. One of the methods is differential evolution (DE) algorithm. The principle of DE algorithm is based on analogy of biological evolution that consists of population initiation process, mutation process, crossover process, and selection process. This algorithm has some strengths because of it simply structure, ease to use, speed, and robustness. This method is hoped will improve the transportation system, especially route determining which will reduce transportation cost. The implementation of differential evolution algorithm use case of a car assembling plant company (PT. X) for pick up of components from its sub-contractor (suppliers) which spread in Cikarang, Cibitung and Karawang in West Java, which will be assembled in the assembling plant in Sunter. The results indicated that the proposed method significantly reduce the travel distance by 15.23% which also means reduce the cost of logistic by 25.21%.
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Cross-docking replaces traditional warehousing, enabling continuous flow of items without storage. Here we model location-distribution networks, that include cross-docking facilities, to obtain the latter's impact on the supply chain. We formulate optimization models to minimize total cost in three multi-echelon networks, each model generalizing the preceding one. The first includes a single manufacturer, one product type, and multiple customers. Cross-docks are to be located between origin and destinations. Besides solving optimally, a tool for quantitative analysis of direct-shipment decisions is developed. The second model considers more than one product: We determine a cost-effective sequence of items for indirect shipment (via cross-docks). Finally, in a network with multiple origins, optimal solutions are obtained for 40 medium-sized and larger examples.
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The idea of Milk Run has been used in the context of logistic and supply chain problems in order to manage the transportation of materials. In this paper, we propose a new Milk Run method, as a mixed integer approach, to manage supply chain problems. Since the resulted problem formulation is NP-Hard, we use some meta-heuristic and compare the results with the optimal solutions of the proposed Milk Run method. The mathematical modeling of this paper is purposely customized for a special case of an auto industry. We implement the mathematical formulation and the meta-heuristic using some actual data and compare the results with the current strategy. The preliminary results indicate that the proposed method could provide a practical tool to significantly reduce the cost of logistic.
Conference Paper
The financial crisis is the important historical period of China's economic structural adjustment and industrial restructuring, manufacturers and logistics companies need to focus on the overall situation and work together to overcome the current difficulties. The article traces the meaning of the development of linkage mechanism on the basis of published “On linkage mechanism between manufacturing and logistic industries”, analyses that the essence of manufacturing and logistics industry is logistics management activities linkage, and then analyses the manufacturing and logistics industry have the coupling relationship in the whole ecosystem industry from the manufacturing industry chain's perspective, the results of which are the mechanism of static and dynamic. analyses the mechanism of the logistics industry in the manufacturing supply chain from the manufacturing supply chain perspective. At last, it is concluded that there are three stages of linkage process of manufacturing and logistics industry by studying the mechanism.
Conference Paper
Automobile enterprises must be based on the survival of the entire supply chain's competitive edge relies on strengthening the supply chain, logistics cost management for enterprises increasingly become a priority project. In this paper, by using of supply chain management and logistics cost management theoretical knowledge, from the view of overall situation of automotive industry supply chain in China, logistics cost control on the status and development trend of research to make up the literature limited to a single aspect of the analysis, further improvement of the program, reducing supply chain logistics costs and improving economic efficiency for automotive enterprises to decision-making are proposed.
Conference Paper
Inventory-transportation integrated optimization in the distribution system is important research subject of logistics integration strategy. This paper analyses the relationship between inventory and transportation, builds the ITIO issue optimization based on milk-run mode, and combining the character of Model, this paper designs Genetic Algorithm of natural number coding to solve Vehicle Scheduling model of milk-run, then uses stepwise iterated Algorithm to balance inventory cost and transportation cost, in order to make the total cost of milk-run logistics network system minimum.
Research in Transport and Logistics
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Vehicle Routing in Milk Run Operations: A Column Generation Based Approach
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