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Why do slot booking systems still generate time-losses and is there a solution for it?

Tijdschriftbijdrage - e-publicatie

Truck arrivals at distribution centres (DCs) follow two main working practices: either working on a first-come-first-served principle or, alternatively, using time slots. While the former results in time losses due to unanticipated waiting time, the latter should generate less time losses as more time is spent scheduling beforehand. Yet, although a schedule is made, in reality ad-hoc changes still require that sometimes orders are served on a first-come-first-served basis, making the use of slots appear as superfluous. This research looks into the reasons why using time slots does not bring the expected benefits and collects data to show the time spent on scheduling (planning and dispatching) procedures for both working practices. To do so, time measurements are carried out to reflect both the duration of each procedure and the operational delay generated to trucks. An in-depth analysis is carried out on data from three distribution centres and five trucking companies that call those DCs. This research shows that, although slot booking systems are in use, they do not bring the expected time savings. This shortcoming happens due to the incompatibility of the multiple ICT systems in use for slot bookings at different DCs and the variety of rules that need to be met when rebooking slots. As follow-up, this research proposes an overarching solution defined as a Dynamic Slot booking System (DSS) that can address these issues. The conceptual design of a DSS that is proposed makes use of data and algorithms to anticipate ad-hoc changes. This DSS closes the gap between fragmented information available at DCs for slot use, planning of trucking companies, real-time time delay databases and the operational planning needs. Further results are given with regard to the time savings that can be made when a DSS is rolled out. Average-size carriers, running on average 75 trucks, can save between 885 and 992 min per day due to automatic rescheduling of trucks that currently arrive earlier or later than the planned slots. Moreover, for trucks that arrive later than the planned slots, DCs that handle 72 trucks a day can save on a daily basis around 50 min of labour. This labour is currently used for the manual follow up of the planning and for processing ad-hoc changes.
Tijdschrift: Research in transportation business & management
ISSN: 2210-5395
Volume: 44
Pagina's: 1 - 17
Jaar van publicatie:2022
Trefwoorden:A1 Journal article
Toegankelijkheid:Open