Transport Selection: Computer Modelling in a Spreadsheet Environment

Trade‐offs among logistics cost and service elements often make transport selection analysis difficult, especially when demand is uncertain and carriers offer different rates and services. The spreadsheet environment offers a powerful, manager‐friendly medium for analysing these trade‐offs. This microcomputer application exploits some of the recent advances in spreadsheet technology to provide transport buyers with a tool for evaluating such complex logistical trade‐offs. This tool demonstrates how the emerging spreadsheet technology makes it relatively easy to develop a computer‐based model that can capture a rich level of detail that is beyond the scope of the current transport selection models using analytical approaches.