Distribution networks consolidation and optimization for a large industrial conglomerate

Redesigning the distribution networks for the company's various supply chains to lower the cost of delivering products to customers is crucial to company's competitiveness. Redesign includes changing warehouse locations for a specific product to be closer to customers and warehouse consolidation, which requires sharing warehouse space by more than one product type and closing some existing warehouses that are not cost efficient to operate. The objective of this project is to develop a decision tool to help an industrial conglomerate makes decisions related to the redesign its distribution networks. The data collection was done through collaboration with company's representatives. A Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model was developed as a tool to solve the optimization problem, which involves moving 9 product types from 21 manufacturing plants, through 22 warehouses, and to 26 destination zones,. The results from the model provides a useful information for the company about which warehouses should be retained, which warehouses should be closed, and what would be the new distribution networks, in order to minimize total distribution costs while still satisfy the customers' demand.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Sridurongkatum, Phol

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bruce Arntzen.

• Engineering Systems Division.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61187

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/61187