See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/284182201

Problem Tree (PT) & Truck Transportation and Logistics / An Italian Case Study

Technical Report · June 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.5130.6967

CITATIONS READS
3 723

1 author:

Sajjad Khaksari
Politecnico di Torino
61 PUBLICATIONS   12 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

TRUCK TERROR View project

DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGIES APPLIED TO LOGISTICS SYSTEMS View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Sajjad Khaksari on 20 November 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Prof. Agostino Villa, Politecnico di Torino
Student: Sajjad Khaksari
June 6, 2015
!
Production System Analysis & Italian Transport Companies

!
A briefly endeavor to modeling
!
!
I s it possible to use the method we use to analyze the Production System for analyzing a
Transport Company? My brief endeavor to analyze Transport services has started by asking this
question. The question was that is it possible to assume a delivery good as a PF (final Product)?
In addition to find out the EO’s, Components, Resources, Production Functions, Agents,
Information patterns and Organizational Chart. So to find out which kind of information we
need, lets start with explaining the main factors, those could build a Product Tree.
!
Adopting and assuming some essential contraction
We assume that FP is satisfactory of client by delivering good Pi to Ij . Furthermore i = 1, … , n ;
they are different products (goods) from the same client (producer). For example in this case, we
assume that OV (officina Vica) who is one of the most important supplier for Iveco, gives Pi to
!
dp (De Poli autotrasporti) and requests a Transport service.
So I is Iveco, that is one of the most important client for OV. In addition OV is supplier (Sn) for
Iveco. Also OV is one of the Iveco’s suppliers. Time by time Iveco asks OV to support her
Production Line by raw materials, those are necessary for JIT system. Iveco has different
Delivery Point in her Lungo Stura Lazio plant, so we call them j = 1, … , n.
!
The table of Production functions
In this case we assume some principal activities which happened normally during the Transport.
In reality the types of these functions are depend to feature of goods, the regulated rules from
the government or European Union (EU) and other practical index of the products and facilities. 

!
The table of Resources
In the case of Resources, to having a simple imagination of dp transport system, we assume just
one kind of Forklift or Van or other vehicle in the table of the Resources.
!
! R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
!
!1
The table of Agents
Unfortunately in Italian families transport companies, they manage every things on base of their
personal (non academic) experiences! Normally they believe the the main problem is crisis not
any thing else! They just trust to members of family (as a her sons, or husband or son or daughter
of her sisters/brothers etc.) not to any one else. That means, even the STAFF should be a member
of family (normally the Son). Other DM’s, they are just worker! and they have to follow the
STAFF and mamma PAC. Furthermore these kind of companies are not familiar with modern
Accounting systems, Customer Relationship Manager systems, SCM systems etc.
!
Agents Assigned production Functions Type Responsibility on Subordinated to

DM1 Loading&Unloading LO Storehouse STAFF

DM2 Driver LO Transport STAFF
DM3 Logistics Sub-Control LO Logistic Activities STAFF
DM4 Logistics Control STAFF P. Activity of System PAC
DM5 Company (Transport) Activity Control PAC System ——
Standard Transport Time
Timing is an another important factor to analyze the efficiency of the system. Time to reach the
customer, time to loading, necessary time to drive the distance between the customer and
delivery point. Moreover when we talk about freight transport systems, we can not forgot some
important constraints such as the maximum hours of work that any driver has permission to do
during the day and in totally during the week. [all the informations in the followed chart are
!
based on the calculating one working day times of mine when I was working as a lorry driver].
The resolutes are incredibly interesting and contrary with the empirically public opinion in the
transport world. The companies those work yet in the traditional systems, believe that who waste
the time is just the driver! So using Make-span (MS) as the Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
helped us to find out this fantastic result. Statical result illustrate that just 24 % of a driver work’s
times, delicate to driving. All other 76% are wasted in cause of repeatedly waiting for other PF’s!
These (not principal but essential) operations are normally Loading, Unloading, Tacking or
releasing necessary transport documents (DDT) etc.
! Reach Customer Driving
! Wait for Loading Wait for Unloading
! L + tack doc.
etc.
UL + tack doc.

! 4% 6%
! 10%

! 24%
!
! 22%

! 11%

23%
!2
Problem Tree
Problem Tree as a simple and fundamental imagination of what is happening in the system:
!
!
!
! FP = Satisfactory of client by delivering his goods Pi to Ij

! Resources Tasks

! PF2 = Final unloading of goods

R1 Forklift
! GE = Goods has entered to Delivery Point
! R2 Van

! PF3 = Enter to the plant R3 Truck

! R4 Trailer
! GA = Goods (vehicle) has arrived to the plant

! R5 Trailer Trainer

! PF5 = Driving
R6 Drive
!
! GA = Goods (vehicle) has exited from the plant
Sometime

! depends to

! PF4 = Exit from the plant various

situation,

! Doc. = Transport’s Documents has taken

here we will
see a kind of

! LOOP.

!
Means that
vehicle have
PF6 = Documents has taken
! to exit of the
plant and

! L = Goods has Loaded enter in it

!
again.
Maybe

! PF1 = Loading operation

because of
different

! Point of

!
Loading or
VE = Vehicle has entered to client’s plant waiting for

! receive Final
Product that

! PF3 = Enter to the plant is not ready

!
yet etc.

! VA = Vehicle has arrived to the plant

! N Production Functions
! PF5 = Driving
1 Loading
! VX = Vehicle has exited from the plant
! 2 Unloading

! PF4 = Exit from the plant 3 Entering to the plant

! 4 Exiting from the plant
! VR = Vehicle is ready to start working

! 5 Driving

! PF7 = Vehicle preparing 6 Tack/release Documents

! NV = Non prepared vehicle for work 7 Preparing Vehicle
8 Control
9 PAC
!3
So after illustrating of Problem Tree, its the time for Graph of Components, which represent the
Elementary Operations and their numbers. In this case (Transport Activity) the graph is Linear
but if we assume additional products in advanced analysis, it became more similar to Tree.
! 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
!NV VR VX VA VE L DO EX GA GE PF
!
Then we have to create the Table of Paths:
!
NV VR VX VA VE L DOC. EX GA GE PF
10 PHASES
!
Then we have to find out Digram of Elementary Operations (EO’s) & Phases:
!
!10

! 9 7
!
! 8 6

! 7
5
! 6
4
! 5

! 4
3

! 2

! 3
1
! 2

! 1
F’s/P’s 1° 2° 3° 4° 5° 6° 7° 8° 9° 10°

! 1° 2° 3° 4° 5° 6° 7° 8° 9° 10°

So its time to drawing and identifying the PF’s & EO’s:

!PF’s \ EO’s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
!
! 1 1

! 2 1
! 3 1 1
!
! 4 1 1

! 5 1 1

! 6 1
! 7 1
!
Furthermore, the graph of Functions & Phases: As you see in graph, the functions 3, 4 and 5 are
happening in two different phases. Here we are going to represent the Graph of Production
Functions and the Work Sequence:

NV VR VX VA VE L DOC EX GA GE
PF7 PF4 PF5 PF3 PF1 PF6 PF4 PF5 PF3 PF2 PF

!4
Moreover before representing the final Work Sequence Layout, we have to create and explore the
Table and Graph of Resources:
R’s \ PF’s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 1 1
2
3
4 1
5 1
6 1 1 1 1 1
However, you see the mass traffic of production functions behind the Resource 6. Do you
remember who is responsible of 6th resource? Yes, you are right. He / she is Driver! So this
means that the qualification of this resource is very important. Even you as a manager or as a
controller is better to collaborate with driver, because efficiency and performance of this resource
could seriously effect on the line of transport & logistic system. (Critical Point)
!
Finally we arrived to the destination of this report! In the below figure we see the Work sequence
and definite layout of the system. Critical point and bottle neck points are concentrated on R6.
!
!
! DM5
!
!
!
! DM4
!
!
!
! DM3
!
!
!
!
! DM2 DM1

!
!
!
!
! PF 7 PF 4 PF 4 PF 5

! PF 3 PF 5 PF 6
! R6 PF 1
PF 3
PF 2

R6
!5
 In addition, the Information Pattern of the company illustrate the flows of information between
the DM’s. PAC (DM5) control all actors. Organization Chart illustrate the organizational
position of 6th resource (driver) and the positions of his co-workers in the team of transport.
STAFF and his staffs! (DM3 = Logistics sub-control) decide, order and control any movements.
!
! Information Pattern Organization Chart
!
!
! DM5 PAC
!
!
! STAFF LO

DM4
! DM1

! LO LO LO LO

! DM3 DM2

!
Resources: To write this paper we use books and websites has addressed in below.

✓ A. Villa, De Toni, Palazzolo; Gestione della produzione, Isedi, 2013

✓ DHL web site
✓ Trasporto merci su strada, è una pubblicazione a cura di: ANFIA - Associazione Nazionale
Filiera Industria Automobilistica – Area Studi e Statistiche Automobile Club d’Italia –
Area Professionale Statistica
✓ Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti, DIPARTIMENTO PER I TRASPORTI, LA
NAVIGAZIONE ED I SISTEMI INFORMATIVI E STATISTICI, DIREZIONE
GENERALE PER I SISTEMI INFORMATIVI, STATISTICI E LA COMUNICAZIONE;
UFFICIO DI STATISTICA, SISTEMA STATISTICO NAZIONALE; Conto Nazionale
delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti
✓ Analisi e previsioni per il trasporto merci in Italia, © Confcommercio-Imprese per l’Italia
✓ Logistics and supply chain management: creating value-adding networks / Martin Christopher.
-- 4th ed. PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED
✓ O'Brien, Marakas; Introduction to information system; 16th edition
✓ Sajjad Khaksari Blog; http://italiancoaddress.blogspot.it

!6

View publication stats