DB Schenker regularly receives an opportunity from potential or existing customers to submit an offer for a logistics service put out to tender or to continuously improve existing solutions. Currently, the logistics concepts developed for each tender or improvement project bear the individual signature of the responsible employee. There is no structured and standardised decision support or modular system to support the tender preparation or the improvement process. One possible solution that is pursued in the present research project is the use of simulation software to be able to systematically consider the effects of the various possible solutions under uncertain conditions (e.g. fluctuations in the level of demand, the temporal distribution of demand) on logistics costs and performance both in the planning and improvement phase. As a basis for this, DB Schenker's operational reference processes must be considered and transferred to the planning processes of Solution Design.

The planned project will validate the decision support developed in the “SyD2” project and test the transferability from the application in the improvement process to the tender process. Subsequently, the introduction of the model into the ongoing operations of tender management at DB Schenker is to be supported. The user feedback is to be recorded and implemented after a critical discussion in the project team.