IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orited/v23y2022i1p12-26.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Exercise for Teaching Transportation Problem Using Spatial Data

Author

Listed:
  • Jyotirmoy Dalal

    (Decision Sciences Area, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, Lucknow 226013, India)

Abstract

We present an exercise for teaching the transportation problem using a mix of spatial and randomly generated data. It illustrates the potential of using qualitative and quantitative data and is suitable for undergraduate or introductory business school courses on operations research (OR), logistics, and supply chain management. It poses two challenges: (i) given the demand locations and volume, open a certain number of warehouses to ensure customer responsiveness and (ii) given those warehouses with capacity limits, determine an optimal distribution plan that minimizes the total distribution cost. This exercise is developed with the active participation of MBA students in an introductory OR course. The participants, attending the class online from different parts of India during the COVID-19 pandemic, helped generate realistic customer locations by sharing their location data. Visualizing this spatial data (after masking) in Google My Maps helps the students decide on suitable warehouse locations by considering the proximity to customers as well as diverse socioeconomic, political, and environmental factors. Then, using these warehouse and customer data, the optimal distribution plan is obtained by employing OpenSolver. Students appreciate the exposure—starting from data set generation to deriving an optimal solution—offered by this data-driven decision-making exercise.

Suggested Citation

  • Jyotirmoy Dalal, 2022. "An Exercise for Teaching Transportation Problem Using Spatial Data," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 12-26, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orited:v:23:y:2022:i:1:p:12-26
    DOI: 10.1287/ited.2021.0265
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/ited.2021.0265
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/ited.2021.0265?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew J. Drake & Paul M. Griffin & Julie L. Swann, 2011. "Case Article ---Keeping Logistics Under Wraps," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 11(2), pages 57-62, January.
    2. Eric Huggins, 2019. "Case Article—Converting Zip Code Data into Distances: A Case Study for Teaching Business Analytics," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 19(2), pages 105-107, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sanjay Choudhari & Saurabh Chandra, 2022. "Case Article—Route Planning at an Animal Husbandry Department," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 35-40, September.
    2. Ashlea Bennett Milburn & Emre Kirac & Mina Hadianniasar, 2017. "Case Article—Growing Pains: A Case Study for Large-Scale Vehicle Routing," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 17(2), pages 75-80, January.
    3. John F. Wellington & Stephen A. Lewis, 2021. "Getting Beyond the First Result of Solving a Vehicle Routing Problem," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 9-27, September.
    4. Dessislava Pachamanova & Vera Tilson & Keely Dwyer-Matzky, 2022. "Case Article—Machine Learning, Ethics, and Change Management: A Data-Driven Approach to Improving Hospital Observation Unit Operations," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 178-187, May.
    5. Saurabh Chandra & Amit Kumar Vatsa, 2021. "Case Article—Coastal Shipping for Automobile Distribution," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 28-34, September.
    6. Jeroen Beliën & Jan Colpaert & Liesje De Boeck & Johan Eyckmans & Wouter Leirens, 2013. "Teaching Integer Programming Starting From an Energy Supply Game," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 129-137, May.
    7. Susan Cholette & Theresa Roeder, 2012. "Embedding a Sustainability Module Into Quantitative Business Courses," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 13(1), pages 44-56, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:orited:v:23:y:2022:i:1:p:12-26. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.