Laboratory no.
3
Network design in supply chain.
Optimizing network model
1. Subject: Supply chain management and logistics
2. Master program: Service Engineering and Management
3. Lecturer: Silviu RAILEANU
4. Objectives
Decide which facilities to use based on regional demand. The application consists
of a case study presented in (Sunil, Mendil, 2010).
5. Theoretical Summary
The capacitated plant location network optimization model requires the following
inputs:
n = number of potential plan locations/capacity (each level of capacity will count as
a separate location)
m = number of markets or demand points
D j
= annual demand from market j
K i
= potential capacity of plant i
f i
= annualized fixed cost of keeping factory i open
c
ij
= cost of producing and shipping one unit from factory I to market j (cost includes
production, inventory, transportation and tariffs).
The supply chain team’s goal is to decide on a network design that maximizes
profits after taxes. The model focuses on minimizing the cost of meeting global demand
and can also be modified to include profits and taxes.
In order to establish a network layout the following decisions, associated to network
variables, must be taken:
y i
= 1 if plant i is open, 0 otherwise
x
ij
= quantity shipped from plant I to market j
In these conditions the problem is formulated as the following integer program (the
minimization of the total cost of operation (factory operation and production and
shipment
of goods) subject to common sense restrictions):
Subject to:
Demand is equal to the produced quantity.
No plant can supply more than its capacity.
Integrated supply chains and logistics
A factory can be opened or closed.
6. Application Description
The input data (Costs, Capacities, Demands) is given as a table with locations on
both columns (supply region) and rows (supplied region). At the intersection of a column
with a row there is the price of a product produced in X (column) and shipped in Y (row).
The problem will be solved using the Solver tool found in Excel. The solution
consists of 5 steps:
• Reading the inputs
• Establishing the decision variables
2
• Modelling the constraints
• Writing the objective function
• Running the solver
Before running the solver the decision variables must be chosen (By Changing
Variable Cells) and also the constraints as specified before.
The result will be observable in the same page: chosen values for the decision
variables, how the constraints are exceeded and also the computed objective function
(minimization of the total cost).
7. Support Information
Chapter 5, Sunil Chopra, Peter Mendil, Supply Chain Management. Strategy,
Planning and Operation, 2010, Fourth Edition
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Solver-in-Microsoft-Excel
References
Sunil Chopra, Peter Mendil, Supply Chain Management. Strategy, Planning and
Operation, 2010, Fourth Edition
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Inputs - Costs, Capacities, Demands
Demand region Production and transportation cost per 1 mil units
Fixed
Low
Fixed cost ($)
capacity
cost ($)
High capacity
Supply region N. America
S. America Europe Asia Africa N. America 81 92 101 130 113 6000 10 9000 20 S. America 117 77 108
98 100 4500 10 6750 20 Europe 102 105 95 119 111 6500 10 9750 20 Asia 115 125 90 59 74 4100 10
6150 20 Africa 142 100 103 105 71 4000 10 6000 20 Demand 12 8 14 16 7
Decision variables
Demand region Production allocation (1000 units)
Plants (1=open)
Supply region N. America
Plants (1=open) S. America Europe Asia Africa N. America 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 S. America 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Europe
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Asia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Africa 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Constraints
Supply region
Excess capacity N. America 0 S. America 0 Europe 0 Asia 0 Africa 0
S. N. America
America Europe Asia Africa Unmet demand 12 8 14 16 7
Objective function Cost= 0
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