Development of a consistent approach for inventory control of Unit Load Devices (ULD) in international air transportation

Bütikofer, Stephan; Hofer, Christoph

Publication type:	Conference other
Type of review:	Peer review (abstract)
Title:	Development of a consistent approach for inventory control of Unit Load Devices (ULD) in international air transportation
Authors:	Bütikofer, Stephan Hofer, Christoph
et. al:	No
Conference details:	OR2018, Operations Research Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 12-14 September 2018
Issue Date:	12-Sep-2018
Language:	English
Subjects:	International air transportation; Linear programming; Inventory simulation; Inventory control
Subject (DDC):	380: Transportation
Abstract:	Unit Load Devices (ULDs) are standard equipment for loading baggage and cargo in airplanes. The maintenance of one's own ULD stock is a non-negligible cost factor for airlines. In recent years, therefore, many airlines have outsourced the management of their ULD's to independent ULD providers. The independent ULD providers should be able to pool the individual ULD stocks and therefore manage the ULD demand with less stock. As part of an applied research project, we developed for an ULD provider decision support: - To determine the daily ULD safety stock levels at a station in order to guarantee a service level for a fixed planning horizon, and - To control safety stock levels at the stations by balancing empty ULD’s between the stations. For the daily safety stock level we built a Monte Carlo simulation which is based on historical data. Extensive live tests showed that our safety stocks work reliable in daily operations. The approach to determine the daily safety stock levels will be discussed shortly. The focus of this talk is on the modelling of the decision support for the ULD control. A linear optimization model was built to control the empty ULD movements. The objective was to balance the ULD stock between the stations and to guarantee enough ULD’s for daily operations. Since we work with a linear model, we are able to compute solutions for huge airline networks in reasonable time. We will present test results of the implemented ULD control for an existing airline network.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/18287
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	School of Engineering
Organisational Unit:	Institute of Data Analysis and Process Design (IDP)
Published as part of the ZHAW project:	Entwicklung eines einheitlichen Ansatzes zur Lagersteuerung und Lagerkontrolle für Unit Load Devices (ULD) im internationalen Flugverkehr
Appears in collections:	Publikationen School of Engineering

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Bütikofer, S., & Hofer, C. (2018, September 12). Development of a consistent approach for inventory control of Unit Load Devices (ULD) in international air transportation. OR2018, Operations Research Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 12-14 September 2018.

Bütikofer, S. and Hofer, C. (2018) ‘Development of a consistent approach for inventory control of Unit Load Devices (ULD) in international air transportation’, in OR2018, Operations Research Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 12-14 September 2018.

S. Bütikofer and C. Hofer, “Development of a consistent approach for inventory control of Unit Load Devices (ULD) in international air transportation,” in OR2018, Operations Research Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 12-14 September 2018, Sep. 2018.

BÜTIKOFER, Stephan und Christoph HOFER, 2018. Development of a consistent approach for inventory control of Unit Load Devices (ULD) in international air transportation. In: OR2018, Operations Research Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 12-14 September 2018. Conference presentation. 12 September 2018

Bütikofer, Stephan, and Christoph Hofer. 2018. “Development of a Consistent Approach for Inventory Control of Unit Load Devices (ULD) in International Air Transportation.” Conference presentation. In OR2018, Operations Research Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 12-14 September 2018.

Bütikofer, Stephan, and Christoph Hofer. “Development of a Consistent Approach for Inventory Control of Unit Load Devices (ULD) in International Air Transportation.” OR2018, Operations Research Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 12-14 September 2018, 2018.