Scalable Procurement Contract for Foldable Containers for Base Stations

Do foldable containers reduce repositioning costs?

In our ECR problem, the shipping company considers both transporting loaded containers and repositioning of empty containers over a planning horizon. Because empty repositioning incurs costs and consumes vessel capacity, foldable containers are used to reduce repositioning costs.

How to reduce the cost of repositioning empty containers?

There are many efforts to reduce the cost of repositioning empty containers, one of which is a foldable container. Foldable containers can be transported in a package such that a few folded containers occupy the same volume as one standard container.

What are the operating costs of a foldable container?

zitF inventory level of foldable containers at port iat the end of period t The total operating cost consists of consists of transportation, repositioning, holding, penalty, folding, and unfolding costs. The transportation costs consist of expenses incurred during container flow.

What is the unit holding cost of a foldable container?

We let HiS=0.2,HiF=0.1,PiS=2,PiF=4,FCi=0.1,and UCi=0.1for all five ports. The unit holding cost of foldable containers is the half of that of standard containers, because foldable containers are stored with folded state.