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Network Design for Express Shipment Delivery

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Abstract

Service network design problems arise at airlines (passenger and cargo), trucking companies, railroads, etc., wherever there is a need to determine cost minimizing routes and schedules, given constraints on resource availability and level of service. We focus on a particular service network design application, namely, the express shipment delivery problem, and we develop models and a solution technique designed specifically for large-scale express delivery problems with time windows. Using data from an express delivery company, we demonstrate that our approach can produce savings in total operating costs and provide a valuable tool for making decisions at strategic and tactical levels.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Cynthia Barnhart

  2. American Express, New York, New York

    Niranjan Krishnan

  3. i2 Technologies, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Daeki Kim

  4. UPS Airlines, Louisville, KY, USA

    Keith Ware

Authors
  1. Cynthia Barnhart
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  2. Niranjan Krishnan
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  3. Daeki Kim
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  4. Keith Ware
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Barnhart, C., Krishnan, N., Kim, D. et al. Network Design for Express Shipment Delivery. Computational Optimization and Applications 21, 239–262 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013721018618

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