Research on the Mobile Electronic Delivery Platform for Iron and Steel Sales Logistics Based on 3G Netbook

doi:10.4236/ib.2012.43035

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iBusiness, 2012, 4, 279-286

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ib.2012.43035 Published Online September 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ib) 279

Research on the Mobile Electronic Delivery Platform for

Iron and Steel Sales Logistics Based on 3G Netbook

Wei-Feng Zhu1, Jian-Hua Gu1, Li Ye1, Zhi-Xin Shi1, Shu-Rong Mei2, Qiao Chen2, Jian-Jun Hu2

1Institute of Systems Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China; 2Logistics Management Com-

pany, Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corporation, Wuhan, China.

Email: [email protected]

Received May 20th, 2012; revised June 20th, 2012; accepted July 20th, 2012

ABSTRACT

According to the situation of sales logistics transportation management in an iron and steel enterprise and the possible

logistics risks, the architecture of mobile electron ic delivery platform for iron and steel sales logistics based on 3G net-

book is proposed. The delivery process based on 3G netbook is analyzed. The three-tier C/S-based platform framework

is also proposed, including database server, application server and clients. The function design of the platform is given.

Finally, the key technologies of the platform are discussed.

Keywords: 3G Netbook; Iron and Steel Enterprise; Sales Logistics; Mobile Electronic Delivery Platform

1. Introduction

Goods delivery, as an important link in a sail logistics, is

referred to carry goods to the destination and be endorsed

by the consignee according to a transportation contract

[1]. In the present transportation logistics of a Chinese

iron and steel enterprise, delivery information (e.g.,

goods type, quantity, quality) are mostly recorded in a

written documentation form called quality delivery bill.

The disadvantages of this form are that the information

about each link is isolated and the transportation process

is short of effectively real-time monitoring, which will

result in higher logistics risk. Although th e advantages of

GPS monitoring system had been taken by most Chinese

large-scale iron and steel enterprises to achieve real-time

carriers (such as vehicles and vessels) positioning, track-

ing and scheduling, there is still lacking of intelligent

management and control in transit. Delivery information

is usually delayed, not detailed, and difficultly inquired.

Thus, the communication between an iron and steel en-

terprise and its customers will be backward and not un-

blocked.

As the continuous development of electronic computer

and Internet, its application is increasing popular since

the 20th century. In the field of economy and trade, it

appears various kinds of commercial trading activities

realized by electronic means. A mass of electronic tools

(such as cell phones, PDA, etc.) and network (such as the

current GMS, GPRS, CDMA 1X and developing 3G

wireless wan technologies, etc.) have been used system-

atically, which makes the commodity exchange higher

efficiency and lower cost. It is the inevitable trend that

delivery means will be electronic and mobile. The in-

quiring system based on PDA has been widely used in

present express industry [1]. The integrated application

of PDA, GPRS, GPS and GIS which is popularized in

public security industry is an ideal solution for mobile

police [2]. The application system using intelligent PDA

phone as the terminal is playing a major role in flood

contact as well [3]. Electronic delivery system and me-

thod for integrating global financial services has been

studied in United States [4]. In order to reduce the logis-

tics risk of unforeseen events during the distribution

process, some scholars believe that improvement oppor-

tunities still lie in the area of real-time distribution man-

agement [5]. On the basis of technologies and informa-

tion systems allowing for seamless mobile and wireless

connectivity between delivery vehicles and distribution

facilities, a system architecture for urban distribution and

real-time event-driven vehicle management has been

proposed, and the on-board truck computer is discussed

to be used as a carrier [6].

Mobile electronic delivery is referred to running elec-

tronic delivery procedures on mobile computer such as

3G netbook. The real-time information about each trans-

portation link can be co llected and sent to the con trolling

center. The electronic data loading specific information

instead of traditional paper document is applied to trans-

mit information, so as to realize the easy, fast and effec-

tive monitoring of th e transpor tation and delivery process

Research on the Mobile Electronic Delivery Platform for Iron and

Steel Sales Logistics Based on 3G Netbook

280

[7]. Electronic payment [8] has been widely used in com-

munication, bank [9] and express industries now. In the

sales logistics of iron and steel enterprises, the primitive

method of recording delivery information can be altered

by using mobile electronic delivery. The management of

delivery information will be improved. Compared to

PDA, netbook has the advantages as big operation inter-

face, cheap, easy to use (similar to the general notebook

computer operation) etc. Because of the advantage of 3G

wireless networks, it has been gradually used in various

fields (especially communications, logistics industry,

etc.).

In this paper, the framework of mobile electronic de-

livery platform for iron and steel sales logistics based on

3G netbook is studied. The paper is organized in the fol-

lowing way. Delivery process design is given in Section

2. Software architecture is proposed in Section 3. Func-

tion design is analyzed in Section 4. Key technology in

realization is discussed in Section 5. Conclusions are

given in Section 6.

2. Iron and Steel Sales Logistics Delivery

Process Based on 3G Netbook

Mobile electronic delivery platform is designed to realize

the real-time acquisition of delivery information, which

can help to achieve effective management of the whole

process of logistics delivery. The logistics systematic

level and logistics management level can be improved.

The main thought of this platform is organized as follows:

Mobile electronic delivery platform is built with 3G

wireless networks. The real-time delivery information

will be mastered by installing the platform on vehicles

and vessels, which can help to make management more

convenient. The carriers can be supervised, too.

On the basis of the different modes of transportation,

the delivery ways of iron and steel logistics mainly in-

clude highway delivery and waterway delivery. The as-

signment sheet loaded is used as delivery receipt in high-

way delivery, which is generated with goods leaving

warehouse. It is issued by the warehouse manager to

highwa y carriers, and endorsed by the sing le correspond -

ing consignee at destination. The assignment sheet on

board which is issued by dock outgoing group is used in

waterway delivery. They are sent group to waterway car-

riers when vessels leave the port. To be different with the

highway delivery, the assignment sheet on board is con-

sisted of one or more assignment sheets loaded and cor-

responded to more than one consignee. The carrier mis-

sion can not be finished until the assignment sheet on

board is endorsed by the consignees one by one. There-

fore, the design of mobile electronic delivery platform

should be combin ed with the different delivery ways.

According to the above design concept, the whole

transport process can be divided into several node types:

carriage node, transit node (emergency prevention) and

delivery node based on a large-scale iron and steel enter-

prise. The mobile electronic delivery platform is de-

signed to do the real-time management of these logistics

nodes. A whole transport process is consisted of one

outbound carriage, one receiving delivery and zero or

more times of transit delivery and transit carriage. The

transit delivery information must be filled in when out-

bound carriage cannot be finished by one time. The fuses

may be vehicles’ own fault, traffic accidents, or natural

causes (e.g., weather, damaged roads). One transit car-

riage must be corresponded to one transit delivery. They

must be in pairs. The delivery process is only finished

after the assignment sheet has gone through receiving

delivery. That is to say, carriage information should be

filled in by the user of the mobile electronic delivery

platform based on 3G netbook before beginning out-

bound carriage (off-port carriage). Then tran sfer deliv ery

information must be submitted to record transfer details

and interim reasons if any abnormality. In the end, the

receiving delivery information confirmed by consignee is

submitted to complete the transportation process.

The operation schematic of mobile electronic delivery

platform based on 3G netbook for iron and steel sales

logistics is shown in Figure 1. The netbook is taken

along with the carries (including vehicles and vessels).

The delivery information can be submitted at any time

everywhere and transmitted to application serv er in time.

Then the data will be processed at application server and

sent back in order to reduce the user’s workload of input-

ting them manually. The design of mobile delivery plat-

form is completed with the technology of assignment

sheet tracked [10]. The status of carriage and delivery is

updated and sent to the monitoring center by the carrier

timely. Therefore, the who le delivery process can be fol-

lowed.

3. Software Architecture

C/S (Client/Server) architecture and B/S (Browser/Server)

architecture are the mainstreams of development models.

Compared with B/S architecture, C/S architecture system

can allocate tasks more reasonably by deploying client

programs to many computers. The pressure of the server

can be reduced effectively. The utilization of the client

computers is increased. Friendly man-machine interface

is provided. The cost of the whole system is reduced.

And enterprise internal resources are reliably protected.

For this reason, C/S software architectural model is adop-

ted to design mobile electronic delivery platform in this

paper.

The design of this platform is on account of the intra-

net and public network in order to protect the enterprise

Research on the Mobile Electronic Delivery Platform for Iron and

Steel Sales Logistics Based on 3G Netbook

281

automob ile transportation

motorist fill i n delivery information through 3G netbook

Gps monitoring system

car number, position, speed, direction,

assignment completion status

delivery of products from storage / ERP

Transportation to ports

Electronic delivery cl ient / 3G netbook

Electronic assignment sheet loade

Electronic ta g: electronic

assignment sheet loaded

Long-distance one-stop transportation

Electronic delivery cl ient / 3G netbook

Electronic assignment sheet loaded

Paper assignment sheet l oaded

Paper assi gnment sheet loaded

motorist fill in de livery in forma tion through 3G netbook

Delivery information

Ship drivers

Electronic delivery client / 3G netbookdelivery of products from ports / ERP

Electronic assignment

sheet on board

Ship transportation

Ship drivers fill in d elivery

informat ion through 3G netbook

Paper assignment sheet on board

Deliv ery info r mation

ship number, position, speed, direction, assignment completion status

Figure 1. The operation schematic mobile delivery platform based on 3G netbook for iron and steel sales logistics.

security. ERP database is used to provide the upstream

data sources. The data is sent to electronic delivery data-

base server gone through data exchange server. The

three-tier C/S-based framework consisted of the client

layer, the application layer and the data layer is adopted

for the platform. The transmission and sharing of data is

realized via the mutual interaction among them.

The architecture of logistics electronic delivery plat-

form based on netbook/3G technology and GPRS com-

munication technology is shown in Figure 2. The deliv-

ery information can be submitted at any time anywhere

by the netbook installed on carriage vehicles and vessels.

This real-time information will be sent to the application

server by 3G networks. The administrators can also in-

quiry the information on the platform to achieve the tar-

get to trace the whole sales logistics process. Visual

C++6.0 development environment is used to develop the

client and application server procedures of the platform.

Oracle 10 g is used to implement the database manage-

ment system. The 3G netbook is used as a carrier to run

the client procedure. The communication of the client

and application server is based on TCP/IP protocol which

can make data transmission security and reliability. Data

analysis and data transmission are completed at applica-

tion server. Data storage and data transmission are achi-

eved by the interaction of both the database server and

the application server.

The real-time data flow diagram is shown in Figure 3.

A request can be sent to the application server according

to users’ needs. The server returns the information re-

quired by retrieving data from the database. The transfer

state of the assignment sheet is updated in the client by

users. Then the real-time data will be sent to the server.

The corresponding records indatabase will be refreshed

Research on the Mobile Electronic Delivery Platform for Iron and

Steel Sales Logistics Based on 3G Netbook

282

Figure 2. Platform chart.

at the same time. The whole process of the transpo rtation

and delivery is being monitored by operation of the client.

Thus, the problems of the logistics process can be found

easily.

4. System Function

According to the previous data flow analysis, the entire

platform is divided into three parts: the server, the client

for vehicles and the client for vessels. The function of the

server is consisted of the following parts:

1) Receiving client connections

Accept the connection request from clients. Process

the business requisitions submitted, and store them into

database. Return the results of the user’s requirements.

Achieve functions of business logic layer.

2) Recording client requisitions

Record the business requ isition s su bmitted by d ifferent

clients. Display them in server interface and store them

in log files in order to facilitate information maintenance.

3) Receiving and processing electronic delivery in-

formation

Receive requests from the client, and return the current

information of the assignment sheet according to the da-

tabase records. Then the user can facilitate to d o the next

step. Objection photos can be appended as instruction.

4) Modifying electronic delivery information

Support the modification of the delivery information

which has been submitted. Update the corresponding

database records.

5) Querying electronic delivery information

Get delivery information, details and objection photos

of each logistics node by entering the assignment sheet

loaded, or ship assignment shet on board, or tag No, or e

Research on the Mobile Electronic Delivery Platform for Iron and

Steel Sales Logistics Based on 3G Netbook 283

Figure 3. Real-time data flow diagram.

order No. Achieve the target to control the whole proc-

ess. Return data to the client for display.

6) Fast delivery

Automatically calculate the transport stage of the as-

signment sheet selected, which can help the user to sub-

mit delivery information in a quickly and easily way

when the delivery info rmation has been completely filled

in. Store the submitted information into the database.

The client procedures are divided into the client for

vehicles and the client for vessels. The structure is shown

in Figure 4.

The structure of the client platform module is showed

in Figure 4. According to the actual demand and the

practical application background, the functions of each

client including user management, electronic delivery in-

formation inputting, information querying and changing

is proposed.

1) Electronic delivery information input

Transfer type (outbound carrier, transit delivery, tran-

sit carrier and receiving delivery) of the assignment sheet

will be pointed out when it is selected. Execute the sub-

mitting operation after the transfer state (no objection or

disagree) has been verified correctly and the information

has been filled in completely. The additio n photos can be

appended if there are objections to the transport node.

2) Electronic delivery information change

The information which had been submitted can be

modified.

3) Electronic delivery information query

Get delivery information, details and objection photos

of each logistics node by entering the assignment sheet

loaded, or ship assignment sheet on board, or tag No, or

order No, which can help to trace the quality of the

whole pr oc es s.

4) User management

User rights management, user information revising and

user passwords maintenance are included.

5) Keyboard operation and fast delivery

All operations can be done by the keyboard. The tran-

sport stage of the assignment sheet can be calculated

automatically. The delivery information can be quickly

and easily submitted by the button of one-click delivery

when the assignment sheet loaded is selected.

5. Key Realization Technology

The following key technologies have been used to realize

the functions of the mobile electronic delivery platform.

Research on the Mobile Electronic Delivery Platform for Iron and

Steel Sales Logistics Based on 3G Netbook

284

Figure 4. Structure of client platform module.

1) 3G netw ork communicati o n tech n olo gy

TCP/IP network communication based on C/S has

been put to use in this platform. The client connects to

the server forwardly. Multi-thread communication and

three-tier C/S-based platform framework (the appearance

layer, business logic layer, database layer) are used in the

application server to synchronize data exchange.

2) Photo access technology

The photo reading and writing techniques based on

MFC development framework and Oracle database are

applied for the platform comprehensively. ActiveX Data

Object is adopted. Its functions such as AppendChunk()

and GetChunk() are being used to access large object

data of BLOB type.

3) Photo transmission technology

The multi-threaded file transmission b ased on the soc-

ket is used to transfer pho tos. The special-purpose thread

which had a separate port is being used to realize the

transmission of large files and other instructions synch-

ronously.

4) Fully keyboard operation technology

The keyboard overloaded technology based on MFC

development framework is made extensive use in this

platform. The submission of transport information can be

completed with keyboard absolutely. For example, the

cursor can be captured automatically, and the focus of

the controls can be determined intelligently. Therefore,

delivery information can be submitted quickly and easily.

The real effect of this mobile electronic delivery plat-

form is shown in Figures 5 and 6.

The main interface of client is shown in Figure 5. The

tab pages of delivery information inputting, delivery in-

formation querying and password changing is shown in

the left part in order of priority. The first tab page is de-

fault to display after successful logon. As shown in Fig-

ure 5, the list of the assignment sheets based on travel

No. and its receiving customer list are given in the left.

The corresponding receiving customer can be selected

automatically when the assignment sheet has been clic-

ked. Or its customers will be listed if this assignment

sheet has more than one receiving customers. The corre-

sponding basic information will be displayed in the right

interface following. Then the deliv ery information can be

submitted easily.

The main interface of application server is shown in

Figure 6. The events window and the output window are

included. The occurred time and content of all operations

in the application server are displayed in the events win-

dow. The output window is composed of the tab page

that recording the status of the client login and the tab

Research on the Mobile Electronic Delivery Platform for Iron and

Steel Sales Logistics Based on 3G Netbook 285

Figure 5. The main interface of the client.

Figure 6. The main interface of the application server.

Research on the Mobile Electronic Delivery Platform for Iron and

Steel Sales Logistics Based on 3G Netbook

286

page which is used to record the client connection. The

details as user account, IP address, port and logon time

about all current users logged to the application server is

displayed in the first tab page. All events of the client

connection such as login successful, password error, ex-

iting, etc are recorded in the next tab page.

6. Summary

The delivery information can be submitted at any time

everywhere on the mobile electronic delivery platform

based on 3G netbook for iron and steel sales logistics.

Then the whole process of transportation and delivery

can be monitored. More comprehensive information of

quality opposition can be provided to distinct response-

bility for compensation. The logistics risk can be reduced.

The logistics management can be improved. The speed of

reflecting and processing quality objection should be ac-

celerated. Customer satisfaction will be improved and the

image of iron and steel enterprises will be enha nced. And

it can help carriers improve their transportation quality.

The economic efficiency of enterprises will be improved

as well.

It is an innovation of e-commerce in logistics field to

develop the mobile electronic delivery platform for iron

and steel sales logistics based on 3G technology with

WAP protocol. It plays an important role of enhancing its

management and reducing its logistics costs of the iron

and steel enterprises.

7. Acknowledgements

The project was done with the Logistics Management

Company of Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp oration.

This research was also supported by National Natural

Science Foundation of Ch ina (Grant No. 60804038) , and

key scientific and technical research project of Ministry

of Education of China (Grant No. 109104). This support

is acknowledged gratefully.

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