Transportation Reliability Based Distribution Center Decision

Distribution centers (DCs) play important poles in supply chain managements. How to decide an effective and reasonable distribution center location is a first goal for supply chain design, which directly influences the efficiency of the network of facilities and activities that procure, produce, and distribute goods to customers. In the previous literatures, authors seldom consider unexpected events, such as snowstorm, flood, earthquake, bird flu, SARS, highway jam, and war, which affect their performances. In this paper, we design DC location model in integrated cost (or profit), transportation reliability, and studies their impacts on optimal supply chain decisions.