Abstract:

The importance of supply chain management on competitiveness has increased as a result of economic globalization. With the appropriate supply chain network design, it is possible to obtain significant advantages. Determining the physical movements of products in the supply chain network structure that are ready to be shipped between factory and warehouses is an issue that needs to be addressed at the strategic level. Supply networks that are managed without decisions at the strategic level lead to inefficient distribution processes and thus to economic failures. In this context, supply chain network design is of interest to both businesses seeking to succeed in today's competitive environment and researchers conducting scientific studies. The supply chain network design problem of a factory producing hygiene products is discussed in this paper. The purpose of the proposed problem is to minimize the costs associated with the distribution and collection processes. In this study, a manufacturing company, which resides in Izmir and produces with raw materials obtained from suppliers in different cities, is examined. Then, the company ships its finished products to various distribution centers. A linear programming model is developed to tackle with the proposed problem and it is solved via Lingo solver. The obtained results are presented to the company managers, and they are started to be implemented by the company. The company has saved almost 3% of its costs by implementing this newly proposed supply chain network structure.

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