Application of constraint logic programming to decision support for the supply chain management

Supply Chain Management (SCM) decisions can be considered at different levels of detail. At a strategic level they apply to the architecture in the supply chain, at the tactical level to transport fleet selection, selection of supply sources and distribution, and at the operational level, to the distribution of supplies and route selection. Many models of decision-making SCM have been developed. These are the linear (LP-linear programming) or mixed (MIP/MILP-Mixed Integer/Linear Integer Programming) models. These models are equipped with a smart form. Although they are well known in the OR (Operation Research) environment, they have significant drawbacks. First of all, they must support only linear constraints. For problems of larger dimensions search for solutions is long and inefficient. This paper proposes a CSP-based decision model for SCM and its implementation in the CLP (Constraint Logic Programming). In addition, it presents a novel way of constraints propagation using the structure of the problem.