Feasibility Analysis of System Dynamics for Inland Maritime Logistics

The commercially important U.S. inland waterway system is an open system consisting of 12,000 miles of navigable waterways managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)(Stern, 2012). Inland and intracoastal waterways serve thirty-eight states with nearly 200 commercially active lock sites (USACE, 2009). Multimodal Transportation Systems (MTS) play an essential role in corporations competing in US maritime logistics operations. In transportation, the effectiveness and efficiency of the whole system depends upon the interconnectivity of its elements. Because disruptions in the supply chain are costly, this research will look at improving the efficiency of Multimodal inland maritime hubs by looking at disruptions that have a negative impact on the elements that make up the MTS. Although past research classifies disruptions in MTS as: congestion, demand fluctuations, time delays, capacity limits, scheduling and, connectivity between the different modes, limited research address the relationship between these failures and the system. System Dynamics (SD) is a fairly sophisticated way of thinking about the interconnections of these elements. This research explores the feasibility of a SD approach to MTS modeling, which will let us iterate and mitigate a system to be able to forecast scenarios and meaningful hypothesis of a system's behavior over time. The SD model will aid to identify and understand those major elements and disruptions that altogether impact the efficiency of the MTS. The model will help determine how the disruptive factors of the supply chain are related to the efficiency of the system. Future work will suggest decision-making strategies that will improve MTS performance over time being able to enhance customer satisfaction.

• Record URL:
  http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r356/

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $56203.00
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT06-G-0014

  00043194

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  University Transportation Centers Program
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

  Department of Industrial Engineering
  Fayetteville, AR  United States  72701

  Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla

  328 Butler-Carlton Hall
  1401 N. Pine Street
  Rolla, MO  United States  65401
• Principal Investigators:

  Long, Suzanna

• Start Date: 20130701
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20131231
• Source Data: RiP Project 34941

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Feasibility analysis; Inland waterways; Intracoastal waterways; Locks (Waterways); Logistics; Multimodal transportation; River ports
• Uncontrolled Terms: Interconnections (Transport modes)
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Design; Marine Transportation; Operations and Traffic Management; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01517401
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Infrastructure Engineering Studies
• Contract Numbers: DTRT06-G-0014, 00043194
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Mar 7 2014 1:01AM