Operational planning of a large-scale multi-modal transportation system

This paper describes the operational planning system POP developed for Danzas Euronet, a merger of Deutsche Post Transport and Danzas NTO. As of November 1997, the system has been used daily for the transportation planning of on average 4000 container-orders a day on trains and trucks in Germany. An important feature is that the future has to be taken into account: trucks have to return home within a couple of days, and empty containers have to be available at the right time and the right place. These repositioning aspects are taken into account integrally with the planning of the orders in order to get a cost-efficient solution. In addition, practical constraints play an important role, and the system has to be flexible for new and modified constraints. The system has not only been used heavily for daily planning, but also for many simulation studies, thereby supporting operations as well as commerce.