Title: Supply chain network design model to improve response to market

Authors: Kanchan Das

Addresses: Department of Technology Systems, East Carolina University, 245 Slay Hall, Greenville, NC 27858, USA

Abstract: This research proposes a three-echelon supply chain network design approach to manage supply, distribution and selling of product with improved responsiveness to market requirements. It plans realisation of finished product through the local and overseas suppliers. The proposed bi-objective design model optimises market response time and overall supply chain (SC) cost. It achieves such objectives for market response time and overall SC cost by deciding number and location of distribution centres to distribute product within optimum time. It also decides number and location of sales outlets to ensure product availability within optimum distances and thus improve market response time in addition to SC cost. Sales network is designed by including a set of existing and potential retail outlets and similar locations and outlets for the company operated outlets. It plans mobile distribution between retail and supply chain operated outlets to improve market response further. A numerical example illustrates applicability of the model and provides managerial insights for deriving trade off decisions considering cost and market response.

Keywords: design model; mobile distribution; optimum response time; sales network design; number of distribution centre.

DOI: 10.1504/IJFEM.2021.120187

International Journal of Forensic Engineering and Management, 2021 Vol.1 No.2, pp.149 - 178

Received: 07 Oct 2020
Accepted: 02 Dec 2020
Published online: 10 Jan 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article