Sponsor:

Burlington Northern/Santa Fe

Research Team:

Suleyman Karabuk, Mark Lightfoot , Brian Decker, Simin Pulat

Universities Involved:

University of Oklahoma

Start Date:

08/01/03

End Date:

01/31/04

Summary:

Examine the dynamics of supply chains in the railroad and trucking industries, identifying those elements that can be exploited by rail service
Railroad transportation services can be classified into inter-modal, coal, grain, and carload businesses. Each business product (service) is characterized by its average and variance in the transit time. These characteristics have a direct impact on the value of the service to the customers. Short and more consistent transit times reduce the transportation lead-time in the customers’ supply-chain; hence improve their inventory carrying costs and their capabilities to respond to changing demand. However, additional train starts that are required to improve service quality increase the transportation costs. The objective of this project is to understand the relation between service quality and economic benefits to customers in the carload business, which involves industrial commodities dispersed throughout the United States.