Reference no: EM133039771

All business enterprises, including non-profit organisations, seek to minimise their cost of operations for immediate or long-term growth and sustainability. For some organisations, one of their key cost considerations relates to transportation. The distance to travel to a destination has a direct bearing on cost and time needed, be it the travelling of a salesman to meet his client or transporting goods to a customer's location. It is therefore obvious that the optimal objective is determining the shortest route to take, especially in situations where the time to reach the destination is critical to satisfy a customer's demands.

Consider yourself an operational planner or scheduler in the organisation you are working in or are familiar with. One of your responsibilities is to assist your organisation to optimise the travelling distance and time taken by your truck drivers for each of their transportation assignments.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statement:

"The Shortest Route Methodology, while providing a systematic way for determining the minimum distance from a starting point to a designated destination, is too simplistic and idealistic to be applied to the real business world fraught with physical constraints and unforeseen circumstances."