The Indispensable Role of Management Science in Centralizing Freight Operations at Reynolds Metals Company

E. William Moore, Janice M. Warmke and Lonny R. Gorban
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E. William Moore: Management Sciences, Reynolds Metals Company, 6601 W. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia 23261-7003
Janice M. Warmke: Management Sciences, Reynolds Metals Company, 6601 W. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia 23261-7003
Lonny R. Gorban: Management Sciences, Reynolds Metals Company, 6601 W. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia 23261-7003

Interfaces, 1991, vol. 21, issue 1, 107-129

Abstract: In October 1988, the Reynolds Metals Company centralized interstate truckload freight operations. Reynolds' over-200 plants, warehouses, and suppliers no longer dispatch their own shipments to some 200 van and flatbed carriers of their choosing. Instead, they communicate daily shipments to central dispatch at the company's headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. There shipments are assigned to one of 14 premium-quality carriers through a comprehensive automated dispatching system. The Reynolds management sciences department built mixed integer programming and simulation models of central dispatch operations that transportation used to select and deploy carriers. To support daily freight operations, it built on-line dispatching models to help dispatchers route freight by the best service alternative at the lowest cost. Central dispatch has improved on-time delivery of shipments and reduced annual freight costs by over $7 million.

Keywords: keywords programming: integer; applications; simulation: applications; transportation: road; industries: mining/metals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1991
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