Forecast warehouse planning – CTV B.V.
Overview
Company Name / Department | CTV B.V. |
Contact Person | Niels Timmermans/Loek Berden |
Location | Venlo |
Optional remote work | 50% |
Travel expenses (own account or reimbursed by the company) | €0,21 per km |
Housing arranged by company | No |
Housing expenses (how much per month, own account or subsidized by the company) | Own account |
Internship compensation | €450,- per month |
Study program | Operations Management and Logistics |
ESCF community |
Full member |
Start date |
Negotiable |
Company Description
CTV is a logistics service provider specialized in intermodal container transport. We are trying to find the best transport route by combining train, barge (inland vessels) and truck as efficiently as possible.
From our offices in Venlo, Duisburg and Basel, we are offering the intermodal service to customers throughout Europe.
Daily we transport about 500 containers via several intermodal routes.
Most of the containers are entering of leaving Europe through the main ports Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg. We are orchestrating the whole intermodal transport between the ports and the warehouses.
Project Description
Project description:
The process starts when a customer pre-announces that containers are expected to enter the port on a certain vessel. When we have this information, we have to start making the intermodal planning. This means that the containers should be planned on a certain train or barge. To do this we have to take certain variables into account like:
- Arrival time vessel
- Free time in port
- Lead time of the modality
- Etc
Once the containers arrived in time and are transported by train/barge, they enter the inland terminal. When they have entered the inland terminal they have to be delivered to the warehouse before the terminals start charging costs for storing the containers.
For the delivery to the warehouse we now depend on the customers. They send us a planning containing which containers have be delivered at what date and time.
Before a container can be delivered to the warehouses, it passes several stages where disruptions can occur like vessels or train/barge delays. When this happens the whole planning for the container needs to be checked and possibly renewed.
This is currently monitored and done by CTV. CTV then provides the customer the information they need to create the delivery planning. Once the delivery planning is created by the customer, this is provided to CTV so it can continue the transport flow.
Because there are a lot of irregularities in the supply chain, creating the delivery planning depends on a lot of information and is therefore very difficult. Lacking a proper planning, can lead to a lot of issues like storing costs or shortage of warehouse personnel. Having a good planning is therefore crucial.
CTV gathers all information like timestamps, goods details etc. With this information it should be possible to create a proposal planning to the customer of the optimal planning in which:
- No additional costs will occur
- Deliveries can be done in time
- Fluctuations are minimized
- All free time windows are used.
Therefore, we want to create an algorithm which creates the optimal delivery planning to the warehouse. In order to do this the current situation and all variables which can have an influence on the transport and delivery needs to be mapped out.
Then an algorithm needs to be created which takes all these variables into account.
The algorithm should be:
- Continuously monitoring current forecast
- Dynamic à re-calculate when disruptions occur.
The algorithm should start calculating once the bookings have been entered in the TMS. From that point on it has to create the best possible delivery planning.
Throughout the transport process it should continuously monitor if everything is going according to plan. If disruptions occur it should re-calculate. The monitoring and re-calculating is a continuous process up until the container is delivered.
Goals of the project:
Optimize the delivery planning by automating the forecasting process for the delivery to the warehouse taking all variables into account.
Deliverables:
An algorithm which continuously calculates the best delivery planning to the warehouse by taking all variables of the whole intermodal flow into account. The algorithm should be presented to the company in a way that the IT-supplier is able to integrate this into the Transport Management System.
Essential student knowledge
- Forecasting
- Creating algorithms
More information: escf@tue.nl