El posconflicto en Colombia y la Reforma Rural Integral

The benefits

x The hub & spoke is a centralized system; there are many advantages in centralized transportation and distribution system, for instance respond time is much shorter and service level in centralized system is higher than decentralized system based on the same situation. Economies of scale could be achieved during the centralized operations such as freight consolidation.

x The small number of routes generally leads to more efficient use of transportation resources (Simchi-Levi, et al., 2008). For instance, trucks and aircrafts are more likely to run at full capacity, as the centralized mode could collect and consolidate the freight from different locations. And hub could gather and store all the freight from satellite hubs in this hub & spoke system to achieve the economies of scale. Besides trucks and aircrafts can often run routes more than once a day between the hubs and spokes.

x Some complicated activities, such as freight consolidation, deconsolidation, package sorting and freight ticketing, can be carried out at the hub, rather than at every spoke. Centralized operation strategy could maximize the efficiency of system, as people would focus on the complicated operations core area- hub rather than spokes, and the accurate planning and scheduling in hubs could improve the performance of entire system.

x The spoke is simple, and new ones can be created easily (Basch, 2002). For instance, New Zealand Couriers are using several unmanned spokes to link the shuttle and local couriers somewhere in small towns. Because all the freight has been sorted in hub, the couriers only need scan and load into courier van.

111 x Customers may find the network more intuitive. Scheduling is convenient for them since there are few routes, with frequent service. The mode has been widely employed in many courier and transportation companies, as the benefit is more than you can image. The centralized system design has a huge potential for the future development.

Drawbacks

x According to the observation, the hub & spoke system in New Zealand Couriers is centralized and day-to-day operations may be relatively inflexible. Changes at the hub, or even in a single route, could have unexpected consequences throughout the network. It may be difficult or impossible to handle occasional periods of high demand between two spokes.

x Route scheduling is complicated for the network operator at beginning. Scarce resources must be used carefully to avoid starving the hub. Careful traffic analysis and precise timing are required to keep the hub operating efficiently. Especially for the international route scheduling, the planning and scheduling directly influence the costs of operations. x The hub constitutes a bottleneck or single point of failure in the network. Total cargo

capacity of the network is limited by the hub's capacity. Delays at the hub (caused, for example, by bad weather conditions) can result in delays throughout the network. Delays at a spoke for instance from mechanical problems with an airplane or truck can also affect the network. The timing is one of the important aspects in this fast-paced operation. x Passengers, cargo and freight must pass through the hub before reaching its destination,

requiring longer journeys than direct point-to-point trips (Simchi-Levi, et al., 2008). This trade-off may be desirable for freight, which can benefit from sorting and consolidating operations at the hub, but not for time-critical cargo and passengers. The Economies of scale is one of the most important targets to be achieved in Courier Company.

112 Cycles

According to the observation, New Zealand Couriers currently have five – nine cycles per day working nationwide on a hub and spoke system. A cycle starts when a courier leaves depot, serves their area for approximately 90 minutes, picking up and delivering freight. At the end of that cycle, they return to their depot to unload and reload freight and are ready to go out and serve their run again for the following cycle. The cycles can range from five to nine cycles per day depending on the branch; however, the time of each cycle is fixed due to the centralized hub & spoke system requires integrated operations around system.

5.3.4

Services in New Zealand Couriers

Day Runs

New Zealand Couriers networks cover 360 towns and cities nationwide and have a dedicated fleet of 52 line-haul vehicles and 4 cargo aircrafts. Day Runs plays a key role in the same day delivery between cities and towns, also links the different hubs in system. According to the regional same day services (see Appendix 6), the Auckland Hub can cover 57 towns and cities in North Island by day run service.

The hub & spoke networks provide the run density that is essential in ensuring a national, regional and local service delivery standard of 9.30am to main commercial and business areas and midday to Residential, the day after pick-up. Rural can take an additional 24 - 48 hours.

Local – Same Day Service

New Zealand Courier provides delivery across town through the New Zealand Couriers hub and spoke system. The NZC local delivery service can reach local customers and suppliers up to seven times a day. For instance there are one main hub and five satellite depots around Auckland, the operations timetable between the hub and satellite depots are illustrated in Table

113 4.2. The first cycle starts at 8:15am, approximately every two hours between each cycle. AKL Hub has seven cycles per day, City depot has five cycles, other depots North Harbour, West Auckland, East Tamaki and Manukau has six cycles every day. During the each cycle time, couriers pick up the items and also deliver the freights (also see Appendix 5).