Ric5
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- Jan 29, 2008
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- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
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I don't get it...
- Thread starter 1bassplayinfool
- Start date
I'm waiting on a stage shirt that came from China, but has been sitting in Kentucky for over a month. No where near my Florida house.
Here's a recent route my order took from Hong Kong to Los Angeles.
I know LA is a big city - I've been there a few times - but you couldn't have driven over there and picked it up? Saved some delivery costs?
Logistics was complicated before sophisticated computer algorithms, and is orders of magnitude more complicated with them. Other than for packages which are particularly challenging to deliver on time, such as next day delivery, operational efficiency doesn't really have anything to do with getting any particular package to its destination in the fewest miles, most direct route, or least time.
Efficiency, in this context, means getting every package delivered within the contracted time, while using the least resources possible. Sometimes algorithms fail, for various reasons, and the weirdness of the result is often proportional to the complexity of the algorithm.
People also make mistakes, and the more complex a system, the more mistakes there are to make. However, given a complex enough system, it's sometimes impossible to differentiate between a mistake (or error) and an efficiency.
I used to work in software training, support, and documentation in the transportation industry. The first thing I learned, being fortunate to have a boss who had worked as an operations manager for a local company, was how little I actually knew about transportation, and how many unique variables there are.
I'm not talking about bleeding edge, computer driven logistics. This was the basics of freight hauling, which includes everything from billing, routing, and scheduling, to hours of service for drivers, down time, deadhead, fleet maintenance, and fuel taxes. That's just off the top of my head.
My wife supervises a public school bus operation with over 100 buses, some of which run year round. While that's similar in many ways to freight hauling, it also has it's own unique considerations, and layers of additional operational complexity.
Knowing what I do about transportation, I can't even imagine the complexity of an operation like UPS or FedEx.
Efficiency, in this context, means getting every package delivered within the contracted time, while using the least resources possible. Sometimes algorithms fail, for various reasons, and the weirdness of the result is often proportional to the complexity of the algorithm.
People also make mistakes, and the more complex a system, the more mistakes there are to make. However, given a complex enough system, it's sometimes impossible to differentiate between a mistake (or error) and an efficiency.
I used to work in software training, support, and documentation in the transportation industry. The first thing I learned, being fortunate to have a boss who had worked as an operations manager for a local company, was how little I actually knew about transportation, and how many unique variables there are.
I'm not talking about bleeding edge, computer driven logistics. This was the basics of freight hauling, which includes everything from billing, routing, and scheduling, to hours of service for drivers, down time, deadhead, fleet maintenance, and fuel taxes. That's just off the top of my head.
My wife supervises a public school bus operation with over 100 buses, some of which run year round. While that's similar in many ways to freight hauling, it also has it's own unique considerations, and layers of additional operational complexity.
Knowing what I do about transportation, I can't even imagine the complexity of an operation like UPS or FedEx.
And to think, over 17 billion packages delivered annually just by UPS, FedEx, and USPS.
You nail it on the head with your summary. The complexity involved in enormous. One thing not mentioned is the amount of incorrect information on the shipping documents. Some people don't know where they live. 1 digit off a zip here, missing the "SW" at the end of the address there, and your shipment can end up who knows where. The fact that some of this is fixed midstream without the end recipient knowing is pretty darn cool.
Source: I design transportation and warehouse systems.
It doesn't make sense if one package is being shipped by the company. If they're shipping hundreds of thousands of packages or millions daily, then it does.
Is what it is, may not make sense to us but to the shipping company and their analytics there is a method to their madness.
I once sent my Grandmother a Birthday card through the US Postal Service, now mind you she lived in a city within a 45 minute drive of the city I was living in currently but felt it was more personable to send it than just handing it to her, anyways it took almost a week to get to her and arrived the day after her birthday. Now because it was Grandma she still believed in the thought that counted and was very sweet about it, however I personally was kind of baffled and a bit pissed about it.
I've noticed this stuff too with other shippers of items before. Like how a scheduled delivery date on the shipping info may or may not be correct and may change at the drop of a hat. Needless to say what I've noticed is if UPS has four days to work with then by God they'll most likely take four days to deliver it...no matter if it arrives in your city the morning of the third day...it'll sit for that full day and be delivered in the evening of the day it said.
I once sent my Grandmother a Birthday card through the US Postal Service, now mind you she lived in a city within a 45 minute drive of the city I was living in currently but felt it was more personable to send it than just handing it to her, anyways it took almost a week to get to her and arrived the day after her birthday. Now because it was Grandma she still believed in the thought that counted and was very sweet about it, however I personally was kind of baffled and a bit pissed about it.
I've noticed this stuff too with other shippers of items before. Like how a scheduled delivery date on the shipping info may or may not be correct and may change at the drop of a hat. Needless to say what I've noticed is if UPS has four days to work with then by God they'll most likely take four days to deliver it...no matter if it arrives in your city the morning of the third day...it'll sit for that full day and be delivered in the evening of the day it said.
With our luck, they'll get it all figured out when the Terminators come online.
Hub and Spoke. I'm surprised it didn't go the Kentucky first.
And when it gets local, how to route the drivers is hugely problematic. There is a well software problem called "The Traveling Salesman".
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The permutations are unfathomable, causing even massive computers to come to a grinding halt.
And when it gets local, how to route the drivers is hugely problematic. There is a well software problem called "The Traveling Salesman".
Invalid Link Removed
The permutations are unfathomable, causing even massive computers to come to a grinding halt.
That actually makes sense. They pick up and can drop off more things along the way in Saudi Arabia & Germany instead of just arriving in just Los Angeles.
I'll summarize in simple terms - do you send one package on a hundred mile trip or send a few hundred packages on an extra ten mile trip to deliver one package? You want to fill the trucks to the brim and minimize the total number of miles traveled, not the number of miles for each individual package. I had a bass sent from Maryland to California that went through Germany. But, it got there on time.
That's kind of how it works. China-to-USA is a heavy traffic route while China-to-Europe or Africa is less so. Every airplane to the USA will be full but those going the other direction will not. Even though packages travel farther, the use of that space on otherwise partly full airplanes means they get to the destinations with very little added cost compared to adding another flight going the more direct route. And the package may get to your door before it would've been loaded on the next available direct flight.
EDIT Fixed some grammar.
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This is called load balancing. If there is a limited space in the trailer going to that area, packages will be prioritized and shipped or held based on these requirements. Or, if the next day's load balance is light, they will hold to make the next day's trailer as full as possible.
And then other times, they just simply mess up. So it is difficult for a lay-person to really understand what is going on. On the surface it seems like they don't follow common logic.
