Analysis of Shipment Consolidation: Cost-Saving Opportunities in Logistics Supply Chains

Shipment Consolidation is a logistics strategy that combines two or more orders or shipments so that a larger quantity can be dispatched on the same vehicle to the same market region. This book aims to emphasize the importance and substantial cost saving opportunities that come with shipment consolidation, either by offering new mathematical models or by improving on the current body of literature. With a rigorous approach, this book provides analysis and management insights not only in the fundamentals of shipment-consolidation policies but also in formulations and applications in the contexts of multi-item order consolidation and pricing decisions. With increasing concerns in contracting economies and in environmental instability, shipment consolidation offers solutions to achieve scale and discount economies, and thus purveys greener and more sustainable transportation. In global supply chain operations, further gains are realized by shipment consolidation which is becoming the wave of the future for international commerce and logistics.