Predicting inefficient transportation and sorting in a logistics network based on simulation

This paper provides a method to reduce transporting and sorting cost for logistics enterprises based on large-scale logistics network simulation. Firstly, a logistics network modeling and simulation method and software for a large logistics enterprise are brought out. After that a virtual logistics network is created in the simulation software. The virtual logistics network contains the same transporting routes, sorting hubs, in-transit packages and trucks as the actual logistics network. And then the predicted package delivery demands are imported into the virtual logistics network. By the simulation, the trucks of low loading rate are predicted and some of them can be canceled. The over-sorted packages which may pass fewer sorting hubs are also predicted. Thus, the transporting and sorting cost can be cut down. The simulation software spends about 10 minutes in running a virtual logistics network that contains 200 million package distributions of a week on a personal computer.