Integrating supply chain management concept in a goods movement microsimulation

Freight transportation systems are usually modeled in a framework, primarily designed for passenger transportation. The objective of the study presented in this paper is to introduce a behavioral freight modeling framework, in which the role of firms as the decision making agents is emphasized. This framework simulates the goods movement through the supply chains in five modules: Firm Generation, Supply Chain Replication, Shipment Forecasting, Logistics Planning, and Network Analysis. Second and forth modules are the essence of this behavioral model, but are usually ignored in almost all the current frameworks. To have the framework running, the data requirements are also discussed. Some useful and publicly available datasets in the US are explained along with a proposition for an additional online survey. Primary objective of this survey is to gather needed information on the commodities shipping process, which is missing in the available datasets. Pilot survey's results and some descriptive statistics are also provided.