Route planning module as a part of Supply Chain Management system

Abstract

Today, the demand for creating a systematic approach for managing sales, ordering, and logistics has increased. Supply Chain Management (SCM) is one of the responses to problems that have arose with the need for managing complex supply chains. Nowadays, most of the activities of Supply Chain Management is realized or supported with computing technologies. Route planning is an important part of Supply Chain Management related to both procurement and distribution. Route planning systems specify the sequences in which the selected transport vehicles should supply the demand points by requested quantities of goods at the right time. The paper is focused on the analysis of a route planning system which could be used as a part of Supply Chain Management information system or as a standalone application. It describes basic techniques and frameworks of transportation problems as well as important functional requirements, considering recent trends in the field of distribution planning. As a result, functional specification of basic features and other components of system are provided. The paper is a result of a joint initiative of the authors and a vendor of business information systems.