| dc.description.abstract | Supply chain network design is a complex decision-making process. It includes layered factors from
where the product is sourced, where it is received and distributed, and ultimately reaching the customer.
Given the above factors, companies have to decide where to locate new service facilities (e.g. plants,
warehouses), how to allocate procurement and production activities to the various manufacturing
facilities, and how to manage the transportation of products through the supply chain network to satisfy
customer demands. We propose a mathematical modeling framework capturing many practical aspects
of network design problems simultaneously. For problems of reasonable size, we report on
computational experience with standard mathematical programming software. The discussion is
extended with other decisions required by many real-life applications in strategic supply chain planning.
In particular, the multi-period nature of some decisions is addressed by a more comprehensive model,
which is solved by a specially tailored heuristic approach. The numerical results suggest that the
solution procedure can identify high-quality solutions within reasonable computational time. | en_US |
