Day-ahead and online decision-making for collaborative on-site logistics

Recent developments in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector allow companies to utilise wireless networking devices at comparatively low costs. These technologies facilitate improved decision-making through sharing data between spatially decentralised agents, processing these data collaboratively by a central computer, and propagating recommendations back to agents. We consider an application for integrated optimisation: To serve orders for chemicals, a company needs to match logistics and production processes. Trucks arrive at the site main gate where they may be buffered before being sent to the station for loading. We present optimisation methods (mixed-integer programming models and online heuristics) for coordinating site entry at the gate with the current situation at the station. Optimisation approaches are implemented in a discrete-event simulation model and checked for profitability compared to conventional methods without data sharing. The paper shows how simulation and optimisation can be combined to assess data sharing technologies within logistics environments.