Integrated supply chain design models: a survey and future research directions

Optimization models, especially nonlinear optimization models,have been widely used to solve integrated supply chain designproblems. In integrated supply chain design, the decision makerneeds to take into consideration inventory costs and distributioncosts when the number and locations of the facilities aredetermined. The objective is to minimize the total cost thatincludes location costs and inventory costs at the facilities, anddistribution costs in the supply chain. We provide a survey ofrecent developments in this research area.