<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Containerisation of freight transport significantly facilitates the flow of traded goods between remote destinations. The most important container transport routes link Asia with North America and Europe. The seasonality and imbalance of trade are the main factors giving rise to problems related to empty container repositioning. The aim of this paper is to develop a concept of empty container supply chains and formulate prerequisites for its modelling in the search for the optimal solution with the help of linear programming and mixed integer programming methods. This paper indicates causes of the empty container relocation problem based on the literature analysis with a special focus on the Eurasian transportation route. Also, it provides a concept of empty container supply chain, prerequisites for its modelling and examples of container supply chains modelling presented in the literature. The main results of the paper include conceptualisation of an empty container supply chain and suggested modelling prerequisites. The paper contributes to research in the field of supply chain management and optimisation of transportation.</p></abstract>

Containerisation of freight transport significantly facilitates the flow of traded goods between remote destinations. The most important container transport routes link Asia with North America and Europe. The seasonality and imbalance of trade are the main factors giving rise to problems related to empty container repositioning. The aim of this paper is to develop a concept of empty container supply chains and formulate prerequisites for its modelling in the search for the optimal solution with the help of linear programming and mixed integer programming methods. This paper indicates causes of the empty container relocation problem based on the literature analysis with a special focus on the Eurasian transportation route. Also, it provides a concept of empty container supply chain, prerequisites for its modelling and examples of container supply chains modelling presented in the literature. The main results of the paper include conceptualisation of an empty container supply chain and suggested modelling prerequisites. The paper contributes to research in the field of supply chain management and optimisation of transportation.

Prerequisites for the modelling of empty container supply chains

Faculty of Management, International China and Central-Eastern Europe Institute of Logistics and Service Science

Faculty III: School of Economic Disciplines, Management Information Science, Centre for Advanced Studies in Management, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management

Engineering Management in Production and Services

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"Prerequisites for the modelling of empty container supply chains"}

Containerisation of freight transport significantly facilitates the flow of traded goods between remote destinations. The most important container transport...

Prerequisites for the modelling of empty container supply chains

Published Online: Oct 10, 2017

Page range: 28 - 36

Received: Jan 05, 2017

Accepted: Jun 30, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/emj-2017-0023

Keywords
container transportation, supply chains, modelling, optimisation methods

© 2017 Katarzyna Anna Kuźmicz et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Prerequisites for the modelling of empty container supply chains

Published Online: Oct 10, 2017

Page range: 28 - 36

Received: Jan 05, 2017

Accepted: Jun 30, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/emj-2017-0023

Keywordscontainer transportation, supply chains, modelling, optimisation methods

© 2017 Katarzyna Anna Kuźmicz et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
container transportation, supply chains, modelling, optimisation methods