Reconfigurable auto-ID enabled software as a service (SaaS) shell for real-time fleet management in industrial parks

Industrial parks, consisting of manufacturers and associated services, such as transport and warehousing, have played an important role in stimulating the economic and industrial development. Enterprises are able to share common facilities, services, and infrastructures. It becomes a common practice for manufacturers to use third-party logistics to handle the flow of materials both within and outside the industrial parks. This paper presents a software service for manufacturers to share and manage their transport services provided by multiple fleets. This service-oriented fleet management shell encompasses a range of facilities that can be customized by manufacturers for fleet advanced planning and scheduling (FAPS). The FAPS shell possesses several key innovations. First, auto-ID/RFID technologies are used in industrial parks to create a smart work environment for enhancing real-time information sharing throughout the process of material handling. Second, the real-time information is utilized for coordinating the decisions and operations of different parties involved in fleet planning, scheduling, execution, and control. Third, XML-based configuration data models are applied to standardize web-based user interfaces and components in the FAPS shell in order to maximize system integrity and scalability, third-party customizability and usability. Fourth, a service-oriented architecture (SOA) is adopted to cultivate a loosely coupled system in order to realize the FAPS shell. Finally, real-time facilities are provided for different users to manage various resources and operations as well as to monitor transportation execution. A case study illustrates how FAPS shell facilitates and rationalizes operations and behaviors in fleet management. Qualitative improvements in terms of adaptive and collaborative decision making, real-time visibility and traceability, paperless operation ambience, and system flexibility are obtained from this case.