Transportation and Logistics

Warren B. Powell

ABSTRACT

Transportation and logistics involves the planning of the movements of product, equipment and people over space and time at the lowest cost, providing the highest possible service to customers and employees. Static versions of these problems have been studied for decades, creating a variety of specialized subproblems such as vehicle routing, crew scheduling, network design, and facility location. This article focuses on the emerging field of dynamic problems in transportation and logistics. With this emphasis, the article reviews the major problem classes, and highlights important issues that need to be addressed. Modeling frameworks are given for both static and dynamic information processes (often referred to as deterministic and stochastic models). The article then closes with discussions of specific problem classes of interest.