The present work describes a new tool that helps bidders improve their competitive bidding strategies. This new tool consists of an easy-to-use graphical tool that allows the use of more complex decision analysis tools in the field of Competitive Bidding. The graphic tool described here tries to move away from previous bidding models which attempt to describe the result of an auction or a tender process by means of studying each possible bidder with probability density functions. As an illustration, the tool is applied to three practical cases. Theoretical and practical conclusions on the great potential breadth of application of the tool are also presented.
Maritime transport in the European Union has increased in the last years, triggering congestion in many of the most important sea and river ports. A lot of works have highlighted how the connection between these ports and dry ports can contribute to reducing port congestion and emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). This work aims to improve the knowledge about the functionalities of Terminal Operating Systems (TOSs) managing container terminals of sea, river, and dry ports, with the aim of improving their performance and contributing to reducing congestion and GHG emissions to achieve a higher sustainability. The contribution and novelty of this paper in the field of container-terminals logistics research is the use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to identify and hierarchize TOS functionalities. The robustness of the model was checked by applying a sensitivity analysis. One hundred and seven functionalities were grouped into six main clusters: Warehouse, Maritime Operations, Gate, Master Data, Communications, and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Dashboard. The results show that time tracking of vessels, space optimization, development of loading and unloading lists, and optimization of container locations are the most important functionalities of a TOS. This work is addressed to developers, sellers, managers, and users of TOSs and researchers working on container-terminal performance.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.