Cargo Business Newswire

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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Schneider National utilizes tactical planning simulator

Green Bay, Wisconsin-based trucking and logistics firm Schneider National employs a staff of 200 in its information technology department and one of the tools the group utilizes is a "tactical planning simulator" that is designed to ensure its business units move freight more efficiently.

The Green Bay Press-Gazette interviewed Schneider engineers John Nienow and Ted Gifford about the company's tech developments.

Nienow said the simulator models a variety of scenarios, including how the proposed U.S. federal hours of service rules changes might impact where a distribution facility is located.

"There are people who work on very specific engineering problems for customers. We help them define and refine their transportation network and solve problems related to where warehouses should be placed and different shipping strategies. Some of it includes helping analyzing international freight flow," he said.

"The area John and I have done a lot of work in is (our customer service representatives) have very sophisticated computer systems and software on their desktop and we've built mathematical models that in the background analyze data and provide information to them in what is referred to as a decision support system," said Nienow's partner, Ted Gifford.

"The computer doesn't automatically decide which driver to assign to which truck, or which freight to take today versus tomorrow … We have built mathematical models that take our data, put it through various processes and then on their screen they'll get real information about how profitable different choices they may make will be in terms of trying to balance our network," Gifford said.

For the story source: www.greenbaypressgazette.com