The effect of freight transport time changes on the performance of manufacturing companies

Abstract

Freight Transport Time (FTT) is an important resource for manufacturing companies, firstly as a cost driver of logistics processes and secondly as a key factor of customer satisfaction. Yet, there is a lot of controversy between researchers regarding the strength of the link between changes in transport time and business performance and the methods used to measure this effect. In this context, the aim of this paper is to estimate the effect that changes in freight transport time have on the economic performance of transport consuming manufacturing companies. With the use of System Dynamics Modelling a simulation model is built identifying the role of FTT in the internal supply chain of a Make to Stock manufacturer. Changes in FTT are introduced in the system affecting the production materials inventory replenishment time and the delivery to consumer time. Simulation results suggest that the effect of FTT changes depend highly on the structure of the company’s decision making process. Through the development and simulation of several scenarios it is evident that information feedback about changes in FTT if interpreted and processed by different decision rules and strategies can lead to different results allowing companies to fruitfully - or not - reap the benefits of improved FTT.