Optimised distribution system planning

Two-stage distribution-location problems are addressed. Two effective models for two such problems are developed along with computationally efficient solution schemes. In the first problem, a set of customers indexed is to be served a number of commodities from a number of plants through warehouses chosen from a set of possible sites. The demands of the customers for each product are known. Each plant has a limited capacity for producing each commodity. The total possible capacity of each warehouse site is also known. The costs incurred are fixed costs for opening warehouses, operating costs for handling commodities by the open warehouses and transportation costs. It is required to carry out the distribution task so that all demands are met at minimum total cost. In the second problem, there are two additional requirements. First, each customer must be served with all its required commodities by one warehouse only. Secondly, it must be possible to ascertain the plant origin of each commodity quantity delivered