Can distribution be automated? Available to Purchase

The ROADNET and TRANSIT computer packages for route planning are well known in distribution circles, and are now widely used. Their designer, Harry O'Brien, resigned from Synergy Logistics Ltd in August 1975, and since then he has pursued research into the operating mechanics of depots at Cranfield Institute of Technology, and conducted consultancy projects in Australia, Canada and the USA. This article sets out some of the changes to his views on the correct role of computers in the distribution function, as a result of his findings over that period. The author reviews the development of computer usage in strategic and tactical distribution planning, in which he has played an active part in the last ten years, and raises the question of why so little success has been found by computers at a tactical operational level, given their successes in strategic applications. Using the examples of depot location and multi‐drop local route planning, he argues that this implies fundamental defects in the internal workings of the computer software employed, and goes on to suggest how this is likely to be cured in the next few years.