Transportation arrangement system and transportation arrangement apparatus

• US 6,374,178 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2000
• Issued: 04/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Suntory Holdings Limited (Kotobuki Realty Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Suntory Ltd (Kotobuki Realty Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Nakagawa, Kazuya, Nishida, Hajime, Aida, Tsuyoshi, Kumamoto, Kazuhiro, Konishi, Nobuyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Gary
• Application Number:
  US09/483,001
• Publication Number:
  US 20010047237A1
• Time in Patent Office: 823 Days
• Field of Search: 701/200, 701/202, 701/209, 701/210, 705/8, 705/22, 340/988, 340/990, 340/998
• US Class Current: 701/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/047 Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching

Abstract

A transportation arrangement center for drawing up an operations plan is arranged between shippers and both physical distribution centers and transportation bases. The transportation arrangement center is provided with a master data managing unit for managing cargo item data, physical distribution center data, and vehicle and garage data concerning vehicles managed by the transportation bases and their garages and with a route making unit for making routes, taking in consideration also priority vehicles, based on the data of the cargoes, physical distribution centers, vehicles, and garages. The route making unit sets the efficient routes satisfying the transportation orders from the shippers and the restraint conditions on operation, minimizing the number of vehicles dispatched, and selecting the optimum transportation bases. This gives a transportation arrangement system capable of improving the physical distribution efficiency while keeping down the total number of vehicles dispatched.

Claims

1. A transportation arrangement system for operating a plurality of vehicles in accordance with transportation orders of various types of cargoes, from a plurality of shippers including a plurality of physical distribution centers for loading and unloading the various types of cargoes and a plurality of transportation bases for transporting the various types of cargoes between the plurality of physical distribution centers by the plurality of vehicles, wherein

a transportation arrangement center operates among the plurality of shippers, the plurality of physical distribution centers and the plurality of transportation bases, for drawing up operations plans for the plurality of vehicles,

the transportation arrangement center is provided with:

a master data managing means for managing at least cargo item data relating to groups of the various types of cargoes, physical distribution center data relating to the plurality of physical distribution centers, and vehicle and garage data relating to the plurality of vehicles managed by the plurality of transportation bases and the garages from which these vehicles operate and

a route making means for making routes for the plurality of vehicles in accordance with the transportation orders from the plurality of shippers based on at least the cargo item data, the physical distribution center data, and the vehicle and garage data which are in the master data managing means,

the route making means is operative to make routes minimizing the total number of vehicles dispatched.

2. A transportation arrangement system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said route making means is provided with a set generating unit for generating, when defining a group of cargoes able to be loaded on one vehicle in accordance with the transportation orders from the shippers as one set of operation data, a plurality of sets, for a plurality of vehicles, for every departure and arrival location.

3. A transportation arrangement system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said route making means further is provided with a set linking unit for setting a plurality of candidates of routes when defining a plurality of sets as one route, which sets can be linked in series with each other among the plurality of sets generated by said set generating unit.

4. A transportation arrangement system as set forth in claim 3, wherein said route making means further is provided with a route selecting unit for selecting one of said routes among said plurality of candidates of routes generated by said linking unit, which routes satisfy the transportation orders from the plurality of shippers and restraint conditions in operations and minimizes the total number of vehicles.

5. A transportation arrangement system as set forth in claim 1, wherein, when the plurality of vehicles are classified into priority vehicles having a special agreement with some of the plurality of transportation bases to be given them priority in use and ordinary vehicles not having said special agreement, said route making means makes routes for said priority vehicles as well.

6. A transportation arrangement system for operating a plurality of vehicles in accordance with transportation orders from a plurality of shippers of various types of cargoes, including a plurality of physical distribution centers for loading and unloading the various types of cargoes and a plurality of transportation bases for transporting the various types of cargoes between the plurality of physical distribution centers by the plurality of vehicles, wherein

a transportation arrangement center operates among the plurality of shippers, the plurality of physical distribution centers and the plurality of transportation bases, for drawing up operations plans for the plurality of vehicles,

the transportation arrangement center is provided with:

a master data managing means for managing at least cargo item data relating to groups of the various types of cargoes, physical distribution center data relating to the plurality of physical distribution centers, and vehicle and garage data relating to the plurality of vehicles managed by the plurality of transportation bases and the garages from which these vehicles operate and

a route making means for making routes for the plurality of vehicles in accordance with the transportation orders from the plurality of shippers based on at least the cargo item data, the physical distribution center data, and the vehicle and garage data which are in the master data managing means,

the route making means is operative to select the transportation bases satisfying the transportation orders from the plurality of shippers and restraint conditions on operations.

7. A transportation arrangement system as set forth in claim 6, wherein where there are special agreements on shares of operations for the plurality of transportation bases, said route making means makes the routes in accordance with the shares of the transportation bases.

8. A transportation arrangement apparatus comprising:

a master data managing means for managing at least cargo item data relating to groups of various types of cargoes, physical distribution center data relating to a plurality of physical distribution centers, and vehicle and garage data relating to a plurality of vehicles managed by a plurality of transportation bases and the garages from which these vehicles operate and

a route making means for making routes for the plurality of vehicles in accordance with transportation orders based on at least the cargo item data, the physical distribution center data, and the vehicle and garage data which are in the master data managing means,

said route making means being provided with;

a set generating unit for generating, when defining a group of cargoes able to be loaded on one vehicle in accordance with the transportation orders from the shippers as one set of operation data, a plurality of sets, for a plurality of vehicles, for every departure and arrival location,

a set linking unit for setting, when defining said plurality of sets as one route, which sets can be linked in series with each other among the plurality of sets generated by said set generating unit, a plurality of candidates of routes, and

a route selecting unit for selecting routes from among the plurality of routes generated by said set linking unit, which routes satisfy the transportation orders and restraint conditions in operations and minimizes or maximizes at least one predetermined route evaluation indicator among route evaluation indicators serving as operating conditions during operations, where

set generation by said set generating unit and route candidates generation by said set linking unit and route selection by said route selecting unit are processed independent from each other.

9. A transportation arrangement apparatus as set forth in claim 8, wherein said route generation gives only the routes to said route selection after exclusion of routes not requiring selection.

10. A transportation arrangement apparatus as set forth in claim 8, wherein said route evaluation indicators are selected from the group consisting of the number of vehicles, empty driving hours, overtime hours, left-over hours, returning time, and combinations thereof.

11. A transportation arrangement apparatus as set forth in claim 10, wherein said route evaluation indicator is the number of vehicles.

12. A transportation arrangement apparatus as set forth in claim 11, wherein when the number of vehicles is defined by a decision variable x and an evaluation value is defined by c, the route is selected so as to minimize the sum of cx obtained for each of the plurality of routes generated by said set generating unit and said set linking unit.

13. A transportation arrangement apparatus as set forth in claim 12, wherein said evaluation value c is obtained by summing the multiplied values of weighting parameters given to the plurality of route evaluation indicators and respective route evaluation indicators corresponding to each of the weighting parameters, the magnitude of the weighting parameters is set in accordance with the degree of attention paid to said route evaluation indicators.