How to select appropriate equipment to carry your material?

It is important to know how to pick your logistic equipment to minimize cost that you pay for material or finished good flow. There are different type of logistics equipment and methodology available in the market. But you must know which one is best for you.

Before you pick your logistics method, firstly you need to know your material better than anything. First course is density. Calculate your material's density first.

The density, or more precisely, the volumetric mass density, of a substance is its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density is ρ (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter D can also be used. Mathematically, density is defined as mass divided by volume:

where ρ is the density, m is the mass, and V is the volume. In some cases (for instance, in the United States oil and gas industry), density is loosely defined as its weight per unit volume, although this is scientifically inaccurate – this quantity is more specifically called specific weight. Please see wikipedia

Here you can find three different part dimensions and shipping unit (SU) weight. Density is a formula of weight divided by volume of the part.  

	Length	Width	Height	SU Weight	Density	Formula
Part 1	100	120	50	300	500,00	=E2/(B2*C2*D2/10^6)
Part 2	120	80	100	150	156,25
Part 3	120	40	40	50	260,42

It is easy to understand that all parts has a density, what about logistics equipment? Do they have a density? The answer is yes.

Every logistic equipment has dimensions and also available/allowed payload capacity. Here are below some examples for European market.

	Length(cm)	Width (cm)	Heigth (cm)	Payload Capacity (kg )	Density (kg / cm3 )
Normal Trailer	1.350	245	270	22.500	252
Mega Trailer	1.350	245	300	22.500	227
20 ft Container	590	235	239	24.000	724
40 ft Container	1.203	235	239	24.000	355
45 ft Container	1.360	242	269	25.000	282

The initial study should be to match equipment density and material density. Apart from stackability , the best equipment and method is the closest one to material density. 

• Part 2 has smallest density. Normal trailer or Mega trailer will be best choice.
• Part 3 has a density of 260 kg / m3. Normal trailer or 45 ft container will be good choices. 
• Part 1 is the heaviest material having 500 kg / m3 density. It should be better to use a sea transportation. 40 ft ocean container. 20 ft continar with highest shipment frequency will be another option. You can decide according to inventory strategy and inland shipment price.

This calculation method can be also used for shipment base or supplier base. Density of the total material of the shipment or forecast of all material for a supplier weighted average density can be used to compare and decide.