Freight Distribution and Transportation Systems Planning

It appears that interactive-graphic modeling can greatly enhance the planning process for both distribution and transportation systems at the strategic and tactical levels. Distribution and transportation systems have a number of common characteristics, but there are also important differences in their objectives and requirements, as well as in their constraints. These differences call for operations research methodologies that, despite some common features, differ in key characteristics and complexity. Although common interactive-graphic systems could be developed for the planning of distribution as well as transportation systems, the differences would lead to systems that would be unsuitable or inadequate for either type of problem. It is also likely that the systems would be technically inefficient and cumbersome to use. A better direction seems to be in the development of different, specialized planning systems based on several common basic procedures, standards, and functional principles.