Monitoring of relevant performance indicators can greatly contribute to the success of a logistics service provider. In practice, however, this is often done in an adhoc manner, leaving huge potential for improvement through adequate IT support. This paper proposes an approach to build an agent-based information system with emphasis on the interaction between the operational and strategic goals of the company. We present an example of the applied approach for the context of schedule generation and selection.

Auto ID systems can replace time-consuming, costly and error-prone processes of human data entry and produce detailed real time information. However, they will add value only to the extent that data is presented in a user-friendly manner. As model-based decision support is not always adequate, an agent-based approach is often chosen. Real life entities such as orders and trucks are represented by agents, which negotiate in order to solve planning problems. For the respective data representation at least two forms can be distinguished, focusing either on (1) resources (accountbased) or (2) orders (order-centric). Applying cognitive fit theory we describe how the different interfaces affect decision making. The hypotheses will be tested in a laboratory experiment. The intended contribution should support that order-centric interfaces have higher user-friendliness and are especially beneficial to low-analytics and planners working under time pressure.

Abstract:Output of a planning process is a set of assigned individual tasks to resources at a certain point in time.Initially a manual job, however, in the past decades information systems have largely overtaken this role, especially in industries such as (road-) logistics. This paper focuses on the performance parameters and objectives that play a role in the planning process. In order to gain insight in the factors which play a role in designing new software systems for Logistical Service Providers (LSPs). Therefore we study the area of Key Performance Indicators (KPI). Typically, KPIs are used in a post-ante context: to evaluate a company's past performance. We reason that KPIs should be utilized in the planning phase as well; thus ex-ante. The paper describes the extended literature survey that we performed, and introduces a novel framework that captures the dynamics of competing KPIs, by positioning them in the practical context of an LSP. This framework could be valuable input in the design of a future generation of information systems, capable of incorporating the business dynamics of today's LSPs.