On the compact presentation of the lead times perturbations in distribution networks

At the end of the second millennium global logistic networks management emerges as a new management paradigm and as one of the last unexplored frontiers of management science. In a global marketplace, getting the right goods at the right time at the right place is as important as low costs. It is essential for enterprises to develop the visibility of flows in the network and to understand management tools needed to supply network logistics. One of such tools is extended material requirements planning (MRP) model, which is extended in distribution and/or recycling (reverse logistics) formalization. In the concept of a global integrated supply network the location of the activity cells influences the storage and distribution costs, and especially the response time, where demand is stochastic by nature. The problem of where is the best facility location and what is the optimal capacity of the facilities to achieve optimal response time is presented in the lead time study in the frequency space, where different perturbations can appear. MRP is presented and Input-Output approach is used in frequency space, using Laplace transforms. The suggestion how to consider the perturbations of lead times is given. The sensitivity analysis approach to the lead time perturbations is suggested. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.