Towards Integrated Production and Distribution Management

In the current context of a global and very competitive economy, multiple production and distribution activities must be properly coordinated in order to satisfy strict market requirements at the minimum cost. In multi-site systems, products are usually manufactured in one or more factories, moved to warehouses for intermediate storage, and subsequently shipped to retailers or final consumers. Consequently, the effective operation of complex production and distribution networks involves the management of activities performed in multiple factories, distribution centers (DCs), retailers and end users, which are usually geographical distributed in many different cities, countries and/or continents. This paper introduces a novel optimization approach to the integrated operational planning of multi-echelon multiproduct production and transportation networks.