BUSN9058: Warehousing and Global Transportation Management Dr Sadeque Hamdan

Assessment #3: Individual final report

(60%)

General information and reminder

This assessment is an individual report. This assessment accounts for 60% of the total mark

of the entire module. Students are advised to work alone and submit a unique report. Any

group work attempts will result in ZERO. The report shall not exceed 2000 words.

You are encouraged to consult several sources, including the web, academic as well as

business/management journals, CILT website.

(To submit via Turnitin by 12noon on Wed April 12th 2023)

Task one: Artificial Intelligence and “Warehousing and Global Transportation

Management” [up to 350 words]

Discuss with Chat-GPT (or GPT-4) the future of warehousing and global transportation

management in the existence of artificial intelligence and tools, as Chat-GPT, Co-Pilot and

Google Brad. The discussion can be in any relevant direction. It is up to you to decide the

number of questions and the specific topics. Include the chat in the appendix, as screenshots

showing all your questions and GPT responses. Use the information gathered from the

chat/discussion with the bot as base to write your critical review.

Task two: Job market preparation [up to 250 words]

Choose one warehouse management software (WMS) and one transportation management

software. Study/analyse the two and then critically discuss them in your report.

Task three: Sustainability in global transportation [up to 350 words]

Choose a company and critically discuss its approaches in achieving sustainability in

transportation.

1
BUSN9058: Warehousing and Global Transportation Management Dr Sadeque Hamdan

Task four: Transportation decisions

Assume that your transportation company signs a contract with a manufacturer who supplies

seven warehouses:

- W1: Sturry Rd, Canterbury CT1 1FX

- W2: Unit 1B Victoria Rd, Ashford TN23 7HQ

- W3: Cherry Tree Ave, Dover CT16 2NL

- W4: Unit 3, Prospect Retail Park, Whitstable CT5 3SD

- W5: Pepys Ave, Sheerness ME12 1AQ

- W6: Tettenhall Wy., Faversham ME13 8ZB, and

- W7: You may assume any reasonable location.

The manufacturer is located at Hardres Rd, Ramsgate CT11 7FB.

W6 and W7 have constant customers; thus, each warehouse requires daily 400 units from the

manufacturer (→ignore their storage capabilities). The other warehouses face fluctuating

demands. The manufacturer provides the transportation company with the 6-month

aggregated historical demand, which is the total demand of warehouses 1 to 5 combined

(Table 1), to help the transportation company in estimating its costs.

Table 1. The aggregated demand of W1, W2, W3, W4 and W5 between October 2022 and March 2023.

Month Demand
Oct 11670
Nov 12400
Dec 10987
Jan 11687
Feb 11888
Mar 10587
The contract starts in April, and your transportation company needs to fulfil the warehouses’

demand. W1 receives 25% of the manufacturer’s monthly demand, and W2, W3, W4, and

W5 get a, b, c, and d%, respectively. Assume reasonable values for a, b, c, and d.

Warehouses 1 – 5 prefer to receive their monthly demands in regular shipments because of

2
BUSN9058: Warehousing and Global Transportation Management Dr Sadeque Hamdan

the storage cost. For instance, the monthly storage cost at W1 is £2 per unit. Costs at other

warehouses can be estimated between £0.7 and £3.5 per unit per month. It costs £200 to

initiate the order. The transportation company requires one day of preparation to deliver

orders. Since the manufacturer starts a new contract with your transportation company, on

April 1st, all warehouses will receive their first shipment. The transportation company

instructs all their drivers to maintain an average driving speed of 35 mph (mile per hour) and

that the unloading time cannot exceed 30 minutes. The truck driver will leave the

manufacturer location at 5:00 am on April 1st. Feel free to assume any needed information

“you need to mention all your assumptions” and you must justify your answers.

Formulate your result section to show: (a) the monthly quantities sent to W1, W2, W3, W4

and W5 during the month of April, (b) the expected transportation plan for April 1st, (c) the

shipment schedule of April for W1, W2, W3, W4 and W5 showing the shipment date,

quantity to be received, and expected arrival time, (d) calculate/estimate the number of items

available by the end of April 30 in each warehouse (W1 – W5).

Discuss the effect of the following:

- W6 requests the delivery to arrive before 6:00 am on April 1st.

- W6 requires the delivery to arrive between 5:00 am and 7:00 am on April 1st.

- Using two vehicles to fulfil the April 1st delivery task. Assume that each vehicle can

transport at most 60% of the total shipment.

You are encouraged to use figures and tables to present your results. Please provide

“screenshots” of all your code/files in the appendix.

The appendix must be easy to follow (e.g. all figures are labelled).

The report needs to be clear, concise and self-explanatory.

3
BUSN9058: Warehousing and Global Transportation Management Dr Sadeque Hamdan

Submission instructions:
Report:

1. Name the report file using the following syntax:

“LastName_FirstName_Report”, e.g. Hamdan_Sadeque_Report

2. Submit the report using the report submission link “Turnitin link”.

Other files:

Create a folder and add the code file (.ipynb), all data files (.xlsx or .csv), the HTML version

of the code (.HTML) and any other files.

1. Zip the file using (winzip, winrar or any other software).

2. Name the code file using the following syntax “ LastName_FirstName_Code” e.g.

Hamdan_Sadeque_Code.

3. Submit the zipped file using the code submission link.

End of Assessment 3

Sadeque HAMDAN