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This paper deals with the development of an automated procedure for selecting motor carriers to minimize transportation cost prepaid by a shipper. To test the effectiveness of the decision support system (DSS), an empirical study was conducted, in which the freight carriers actually chosen by the traffic manager at a large manufacturing company over a period of time were compared with those recommended by the computer program and the difference between the two total transportation costs was computed. It was found that, while the human decisions based on experience and intuition were generally sound and good, substantial savings in shipping expenses were achievable with the aid of a DSS such as the one described here, especially when the logistical operations become more complex and the time horizon is longer. Limitations of the present study are delineated and directions for future research are discussed.

This chapter sets out to survey the traditional plane boarding strategies employed by major airlines in the commercial aviation industry. It then reviews the simulation-based and analytical approaches to getting passengers on an aircraft in the existing literature before zeroing in on the latter. A new integer program is proposed to minimize the time required to eliminate the interferences among all passengers when boarding a flight so that the plane can take off as soon as possible. The mathematical model is subsequently put to test in an example involving a hypothetical small aircraft, and the results show that it is more efficient as well as more flexible than those proposed in other studies. Other ways to shorten the enplaning time are also discussed. The contributions of the present work and several directions for future research are described in the conclusions.