An integrated decision making process an application on inventory, warehouse, production and distribution decisions

Coordination mechanisms become a fundamental component of the decision strategy. Eliminating barriers between decision levels, and between different stages of the decision making process in business is crucial in order to improve the efficiency of the supply chain. This coordination component is even more important when a core resource is scarce. Our aim in this thesis is to propose coordinated decision tools which improve the management of the supply chain and of core resources. Therefore, we develop, in two case studies, coordinated decision tools in the field of warehouse, inventory, production and distribution decisions. The first case study deals with inventory and warehouse decisions in the case of limited warehouse capacity. In this research, we propose two coordinated decision tools. Those two tools offer different levels of coordination between warehouse and inventory decisions. Each of these is tested on a real case study where the coordination strength is measured by comparing inventory and warehouse costs, before and after. Those computational tests highlight also the influence on coordination of warehouse and inventory costs as well as warehouse capacity. In the second case study, production and distribution decisions are considered. We have examined a particular setting where reusable resources are shared between those two departments. Our aim is to analyze the impact of integrating those decisions on the management of reusable resources. Cost Calculations were performed and the results highlight, amongst other factors, the importance of integration when reusable resources are available in limited quantity.(IAG 3) -- UCL, 201