Academic literature on the topic 'Cargo management'

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Industrial & Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007.<br>Dr. Dirk Gunther, Committee Member ; Dr. Hayriye Ayhan, Committee Member ; Dr. Ellis L. Johnson, Committee Chair ; Dr. Pinar Keskinocak, Committee Co-Chair ; Dr. Julie Swann, Committee Member

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2009.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-82).<br>This thesis covers the development of a framework for the application of revenue management, specifically capacity control, to space logistics for use in the optimization of mission cargo allocations, which in turn affect duration, infrastructure availability, and forward logistics. Two capacity control algorithms were developed; the first is based on partitioning of Monte Carlo samples while the second is based on bid-pricing with high-frequency price adjustments. The algorithms were implemented in Java as a plugin module to SpaceNet 2.0, an existing integrated modeling and simulation tool for space logistics. The module was tested on a lunar exploration concept which emphasizes global exploration of the Moon using mobile infrastructure. Results suggest that revenue management produces better capacity allocations in shorter duration missions, while producing nominal capacity allocations (i.e. those in the deterministic case) in the long run.<br>by Nii A. Armar.<br>S.M.

This master thesis deals with concept development of a cargo management system for private cars. It has been carried out at the master program of industrial design at Jönköping University in collaboration with the design consultancy Dacat located in Gothenburg. When storing cargo in car trunks a common problem is that the cargo falls over, causing it to break or create disturbance by moving around. Existing solutions are often complicated because they require several steps to secure the cargo and take up much space when not used. Many of the solutions are made as original equipment for specific cars. The aim of this thesis has been to work around the standards of specific car brands or models in order to find a solution that can be used for different brands. Furthermore, the ambition has been to come up with a solution that does not require any extra steps in the cargo securing process and does not take up space when not used. The work has been carried out using the Bootcamp Bootleg method for design processes. Following this method, the report describes research in the Empathize stage, moving on to Define, Ideate and finally Prototype. The result is a concept fulfilling the aims of the project as described earlier and is presented as a full scale prototype.<br>Detta examensarbete handlar om konceptutveckling av ett lasthanteringssystem för personbilar. Det har utförts vid mastersprogrammet för industridesign på Jönköping University i samarbete med designkonsultföretaget Dacat som ligger i Göteborg. Vid förvaring av last i bagageutrymmet på en bil är ett vanligt problem att lasten rör sig och välter vilket kan göra att den går sönder eller helt enkelt bara skapar ett irritationsmoment. Existerande lösningar är ofta komplicerade eftersom de kräver flera steg för att säkra lasten och de tar ofta upp mycket utrymme även när de inte används. Många av lösningarna är originalutrustning gjord för specifika bilar. Målet med det här examensarbetet har varit att kringgå de specifika standarder som varje biltillverkare har och istället hitta en lösning som kan användas för olika bilmärken. Utöver detta så har ambitionen varit att finna en lösning som inte kräver några extra steg i lastsäkringsprocessen och inte heller tar upp mycket utrymme när den ej används. Arbetet har genomförts men hjälp av Bootcamp Bootleg metoden för designprocesser. Enligt denna metod beskriver rapporten hur arbetet börjar med en förstudie i Empathize- steget, för att sedan gå vidare till Define, Ideate och slutligen Prototype. Det slutgiltiga resultatet är ett koncept som uppfyller de mål som tidigare beskrivits och presenteras som en fullskaleprototyp.

In the wake of September 11th and following an overemphasis on passenger air travel security, the air cargo system potentially has become the primary target for terrorists. States have undertaken various regulatory approaches that involve technology and operational measures aimed at addressing the perceived security threats in the air cargo industry. This thesis presents both an overview of the potential risks and best security practices identified within several international, regional and national initiatives, including the "authorized economic operator" and "secure supply chain" mechanisms. The main challenge in designing an adequate security system appears to be ensuring that security improvements are in accord with the time-sensitive realities of air cargo industry and do not unduly interfere with trade flow. It is argued that only an international approach based on best available cargo security practices could adequately and efficiently address the current and emerging air cargo security vulnerabilities.

We analyze issues arising from demand management in decentralized decision-making environments. We consider logistics systems and supply chains, where companies' operations are handled with independent entities whose decisions affect the performance of the overall system. In the first study, we focus on a logistics system in the sea cargo industry, where demand is booked by independent sales agents, and the agents' capacity limits and sales incentives are determined by a central headquarters. We develop models for the central headquarters to analyze and optimize capacity allocation and sales incentives to improve the performance of the decentralized system. We use network flow problems to incorporate agent behavior in our models, and we link these individual problems through an overall optimization problem that determines the capacity limits. We prove a worst-case bound on the decentralized system performance and show that the choice of sales incentive impacts the performance. In the second study, we focus on supply chains in the automotive industry, where decentralization occurs as a result of the non-direct sales channels of the auto manufacturers. Auto manufacturers can affect their demand through sales promotions. We use a game theoretical model to examine the impact of retailer incentive and customer rebate promotions on the manufacturer's pricing and the retailer's ordering/sales decisions. We consider several models with different demand characteristics and information asymmetry between the manufacturer and a price discriminating retailer. We characterize the subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium decisions and determine which promotion would benefit the manufacturer under which market conditions. We find that the retailer incentives are preferred when demand is known. On the other hand, when demand is highly uncertain the manufacturer is better off with customer rebates. We extend this research by analyzing a competitive setting with two manufacturers and two retailers, where the manufacturers' promotions vary between retailer incentives and customer rebates. We find an equilibrium outcome where customer rebates reduce the competitor's profits to zero. We observe in numerical examples that the manufacturers are able to increase their sales and profits with retailer incentives, although this can be at the expense of the retailers' profits under some situations.