Location, Routing, and Inventory

Read this article. In it, a model is presented to help determine the number of distribution centers, their locations, and capacity among other factors. Among the 15 assumptions presented, which do you feel are most important and least important?

Conclusions

In this paper, a new mathematical model to design a three-level supply chain has been presented by considering the inventory under uncertain demands, risk-pooling, vehicle routing, transportation time, and cost. The decision related to the transportation options has an impact on the transportation time from plants to customers. The trade-off between cost and time is considered in the formulation of a mathematical model that minimizes both criteria. Therefore, this model holding two objectives has been formulated for the first time as a location-inventory-routing problem with a risk-pooling strategy in a three-level supply chain. The Lingo software has been used to solve the given problem. Some future studies are as follows: considering each parameter as a fuzzy, multi-period planning and solving the presented model by using heuristic or meta-heuristic algorithms.