Modal Selection Analysis of Depot Level Reparable Asset Retrograde Shipments Within the Continental United States

Transportation modal choice for the Air Force retrograde movement of reparable assets within the CONUS is inflexible and is not synchronized with the depot repair process. Additionally, transportation coordinators are compelled by unsynchronized priorities and shipping policies to use express air modes in all cases when the use of LTL modes may be available to meet actual service level requirements at a lower cost, There may be cases where the retrograde shipments of reparable assets via an alternative transportation mode, such as LTL, can still meet fast transportation requirements at an even lower cost than can premium transportation. Historical retrograde shipment data of reparable assets was analyzed in terms of dollars to determine efficiencies resulting from various modal choices between express air and LTL modes. Additionally, the feature of consolidation was explored in portions of the analysis when LTL modes were selected. The Lowest Cost Mode method of modal selection in conjunction with a consolidation strategy whenever LTL was used resulted in a 62,312 dollar or 50.8 percent cost benefit of aggregate transportation costs over a Lowest Cost Mode method without a consolidation strategy. Just the consideration of either LTL or express air modes in each shipment significantly reduced aggregate transportation costs.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH School of Engineering and Management is the author of 'Modal Selection Analysis of Depot Level Reparable Asset Retrograde Shipments Within the Continental United States', published 2003 under ISBN 9781423548300 and ISBN 1423548302.