A supporting decision tool for the integrated planning of a logistic network. In ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR SANDA RENKO PHD.

Design, management and control of a logistic distribution system are very critical issues in supply chain management (SCM). They involve a large number of interdependent decisions, such as the determination of the best location and capacity of a distribution center (DC), a production plant, a wholesaler etc., the allocation of customer demand to suppliers, e.g. regional DC (RDC), the adoption of a transportation mode, e.g. rail and truck, the vehicle routing adopting/not adopting a “groupage” strategy. This chapter presents an original and automatic supporting decisions platform for the integration of strategic (long-term), tactical (mid-term) and operational (short-term) decisions in the design, management and control of a logistic network including up to four operating levels: sources (production plants), central distribution centers (CDCs), RDCs, and customers (points of demand-Pods). A case study is illustrated and obtained results discussed in presence of different problem settings and operating hypotheses. The main contribution of this chapter is the illustration of an automatic supporting decisions tool for the design, management, control and optimization of a logistic network. The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows. Section 2 presents a review of the literature studies on the design and management of a supply chain. Section 3 illustrates the proposed conceptual framework for planning a supply chain: this framework has been adopted by LD-LogOptimizer. Section 4 presents a case study and illustrates the obtained results. Finally Section 5 presents conclusions and further research.