On storage capacity pooling through the Supply Hub in Industrial Park (SHIP): The impact of demand uncertainty

The Supply Hub in Industrial Park (SHIP) is proposed as a public warehouse providing warehousing and logistics services to internal enterprises of an industrial park. One of the most significant benefits of adopting the SHIP is the storage capacity pooling making efficient use of scarce land resources. This paper explores the SHIP´s storage capacity pooling effect through examining the impact of demand uncertainty. Two mathematical models of the supply chain in a typical industrial park are formulated: with and without SHIP. The simulation approach is applied and sensitivity experiments are conducted for comparative analysis. The simulation results show that the storage capacity pooling is beneficial to the entire supply chain especially when the demand pattern is complementarily seasonal or identically volatile. Besides, the performance improvement of the supply chain becomes more significant when the demand variance is higher especially under the identically volatile demand pattern.