This thesis addresses integrated challenges within the global supply chain and intercontinental rail freight transport, establishing the foundation for a new research area. First, this thesis focuses on the development of unified SCOR-Rail Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for intercontinental rail freight transport, as well as initial analysis on Eurasian rail freight. It also proposes various rail supply chain strategies to differentiate rail services, including efficient, continuous replenishment, and responsive rail supply chain strategies that support market segmentation and service differentiation.
The proposed Integrated Tactical Planning Method (ITPM) is a supply chain-oriented planning approach for intercontinental rail freight transport. It considers the intercontinental rail freight network's complexities, such as multiple border crossings and transshipments at border crossing terminals, the unique characteristics of different train lengths across different rail systems, as well as multiple stakeholders such as terminals, railway undertakings, infrastructure providers, and shippers and forwarders.
ITPM offers optimization models (I-FSND and I-SSND) that simultaneously account for both the supply chain and rail system sides. Both models simulate the complexities of intercontinental rail freight operations. The I-FSND model calculates the train service frequency on each route during the planning period, whereas the I-SSND model considers the synchronization of each order at border-crossing terminals across different rail systems. Furthermore, both models include a rejection mechanism and consider transit time differences on the same arc for the main transit, with the I-SSND model determining the duration time of each order at terminals. In the I-FSND model, a weighted goal programming method optimizes resource allocation, balancing service quality, profit, total number of accepted containers through the network, and border crossing terminals' capacity deficiency. The potential capacity deficiencies—information is useful when making future investment decisions.
The ITPM is a powerful tool for intercontinental rail freight planners, the proposed optimization models I-FSND and I-SSND ensure more efficient utilization of resources while simultaneously satisfying heterogeneous transport service requirements of the supply chain. Rail planners can employ the I-FSND model for network capacity analysis across various scenarios, especially when the specific timetable of train services is not a primary concern, while I-SSND model could be used to more operational analysis. Furthermore, ITPM is not only applicable to intercontinental rail freight, but also to rail freight transport networks with multiple border crossings, such as the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN). The initial application of these models in Eurasian rail freight shows promising potential for broader implementation in intercontinental rail freight transport, particularly in creating new business opportunities to meet the diverse transport demands of the supply chain.:1 Intercontinental rail freight transport 1
1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Development of intercontinental rail freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.2 Need for a supply chain-oriented planning method for intercontinental
rail freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Intercontinental rail freight planning problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.1 Limitations of current rail planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.2 Intercontinental rail freight transport in supply chain planning . . . . . . 9
1.2.3 Scientific gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3 Main contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.4 Thesis outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.5 Collaborations in the thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2 Service quality assessment of intercontinental rail transport 20
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2 Existing research in international freight rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2.1 Stakeholders and processes of international rail transport . . . . . . . . 23
2.2.2 International rail services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2.3 Current performance measurement of rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.2.4 Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3 Development of SCOR-Rail KPIs for international rail services . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3.1 Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.3.2 Responsiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.3.3 Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.3.4 Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3.5 Asset efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.4 Initial assessment of Eurasian rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.4.1 Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.4.2 Responsiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.4.3 Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.4.4 Asset efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.4.5 Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.5 Improvement measures of current Eurasian rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.5.1 Service differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.5.2 Priority rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3 Heterogeneous rail supply chain strategies 48
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.2 Existing research on rail service differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.3 Development of railway supply chain strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.3.1 Efficient RSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.3.2 Continuous replenishment RSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.3.3 Responsive RSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.4 International rail service differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4 Integrated tactical planning method 62
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.2 Existing research on information integration in rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.3 Information integration in international rail freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.3.1 Information quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.3.2 Information integration phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.3.3 Information evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.4 Hierarchical information integration in rail planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5 Integrated planning of intercontinental rail freight transport with I-FSND model 77
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.2 Literature review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.2.1 Basics of rail planning and SND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.2.2 SND in freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.2.3 Research gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.2.4 Our contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.3 Problem Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.4 Mathematical Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.4.1 Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.4.2 I-FSND model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.4.3 Weighted goal programming method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.5 Case study: Eurasian rail freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.5.1 Experimental setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.5.2 Scenarios generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.6 Results and discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.6.1 Single goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.6.2 Multiple goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.6.3 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.7 Conclusion and future directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6 Scheduled service network design for intercontinental rail freight transport 109
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6.2 Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6.2.1 Intercontinental freight transport-Eurasian rail freight transport . . . . . 113
6.2.2 SSND in freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.2.3 Research gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6.3 Mathematical modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
6.3.1 Problem description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
6.3.2 Generation of the time-space network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
6.3.3 Mathematical formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
6.4 Computational Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
6.4.1 Construction of test instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
6.4.2 Synchronization of orders at border crossing terminals . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.4.3 Effects of differentiating train services during main transit . . . . . . . . 129
6.4.4 Effects of delay tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
6.4.5 Impact of border crossing time of European borders . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6.6 Conclusion and future directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7 Conclusion and future directions 140
7.1 Main conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
7.2 Recommendations for practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7.3 Further Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Bibliography 148
Summary 168
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:94286 |
| Date | 29 October 2024 |
| Creators | Shan, Jing |
| Contributors | König, Rainer, Schönberger, Jörn, Tavasszy, Lóránt, Technische Universität Dresden |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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