Leachman & Associates LLC has developed an economic model to optimize containerized imports from Asia to the United States considering total inventory, handling and transportation costs from the point of view of the importer. Formulas have been developed for required safety stocks at regional distribution centers as a function of the extent of consolidation/deconsolidation activity, demand forecast errors, container flow times and variance of flow times by channel. To support this model, US customs data summarized by PIERS and WTA has been secured, and a database of rates charged by steamship lines and landside carriers and service providers has been developed. This model has been applied to the top 100 US importers of Asian goods as well as to 20 “generic” importers (representing all small importers) to predict the distribution of containerized imports by port and landside channel.
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