Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Towards Real-Time Data Acquisition for Simulation
of Logistics Service Systems
Stefan Mutke
1
, Martin Roth
1
, André Ludwig
1
, and Bogdan Franczyk
1,2
1
University of Leipzig, Information Systems Institute, Grimmaische Straße 12,
04109 Leipzig, Germany
{mutke,roth,ludwig,franczyk}@wifa.uni-leipzig.de
2
University of Economics, Institute for Business Informatics, Komandorska 118/120,
53-345 Wrocław, Poland
{bogdan.franczyk}@ue.wroc.pl
Abstract.
Driven by rising competition pressure companies began to outsource
at least parts of their logistics functions to specialized logistics providers in
order to concentrate on the core competences. Hence, new business models
emerged like the fourth party logistics provider who acts like a coordinator of
arising logistics networks. One of the main tasks of the provider is the planning
of such logistics networks, which have a very collaborative and dynamic
character. In this paper an efficient way to integrate process modeling and
simulation as part of the planning phase is introduced. Furthermore, an
integrated approach is introduced for supporting the planning by a better data
acquisition in order to provide reliable results at an affordable effort using
simulation techniques. Therefore, complex event processing is used to gather
real-time data and provides the data as service profiles for simulation.
Keywords:
Fourth Party Logistics Provider, Simulation, CEP, Data Acquisition.
1
Introduction
Logistics is defined as the management of the flow of goods and information between
point of origin and point of destination meeting the requirements of shippers and
recipients. The main objective of logistics is the delivery of the right goods, at the
right point of time, to the right place, with the right quality and quantity and to the
right costs (6Rs, [1] and see [2, 3] for a general overview).
In recent years, the logistics industry remarkably changed such that the planning
and monitoring of logistics functions is no longer a task performed by customers of
logistics providers (e.g. vendors, manufacturers) but by a number of so-called value-
added logistics or fourth party logistics service providers (4PL) [4, 5]. Outsourced
logistics functions encompass basic services such as transportation, handling and
storage of goods but also services like packaging, finishing or clearing of goods. Due
to specific requirements of each company (amount of demanded services or
integration level) and due to industry-specific requirements (security or tracking
issues) each requested logistics service is individual in scope. Thus, value-added
