4 Applications in Supply Chain Settings

摘要

In Chapters 2 and 3, we have outlined a number of popular modeling and solution techniques employed in the study of integrated facility location problems in the literature. In this chapter and the next, we further discuss examples of applications of these techniques in different problem contexts. A rich literature covers applications in the supply chain domain, in which problems of designing networks of warehouses and DCs are tackled. It is notable that, while the business planning context is common, the models developed to account for different problem characteristics, such as risk, capacity and multiple-commodity considerations, can be substantially different. As problem complexity grows with the richness of features incorporated in the model, the modeler should carefully select the most imperative features to the specific application while maintaining problem tractability.