A Decision-Support Model for Managing Outbound Logistics: Forecasting, Simulation, and Real-Time Operational Control

This article presents a decision support system developed as part of a Research and Developmentproject undertaken by La Logistica srl, a third-party logistics company specializing in the storage anddistribution of hydro-sanitary products. The approach is methodological and focuses on thecomprehensive analysis of a case study related to freight exit processes with the aim of defining andimplementing a software application to support the short-term management of picking and loadingoperations for product delivery. The developed decision support system integrates past data seriesanalysis and projections, time series simulations, What-If analysis capabilities, and real-timemonitoring within a single computational paradigm to anticipate peak points in the freight exitprocess. The developed decision support system is designed to accumulate and structure operationaldata from the warehouse management system software, to analyse the periodic rhythms of ordersreceived to generate graphical projections of expected peak points and working hours based on theanalysis of past data series and is able to dynamically review projections via real-time monitoringcapabilities to adapt projections to actual progress made at any given time. Additionally, What-Ifanalytics capabilities facilitate management's use of various workforce combinations to determine thefeasibility of the process at any time, while identifying potential bottlenecks before they occur. Testresults conducted with the corporate team indicate improvements in workload visibility and readinessfor associated short-term programming strategies, while preventing operational disruptions throughadvance alerts on operational overload points