Product Delivery

A single-echelon supply chain for a single product produced by manufacturing centers who fulfill orders sent by distributors.

The manufacturing process is continuous and is controlled by a set production rate, measured in units per hour. Two sources of cost are modeled for each center:

1. Holding cost - for expenses related to having to store the product on-site; accumulated at a rate relative to the number of products currently on-hand.
2. Maintenance cost - for expenses related to up-keep of the machine used to create the product; accumulated at a fixed rate plus additional costs whenever the machine is changing its speed.

Note: Any other sources of costs are considered irrelevant or negligible and are thus not modeled.

Each distributor has a different chance to order for each day of the week in addition to individualized distributions for the order sizes. Additionally, there is an order cycle (default duration of 13 weeks) that affects all distributors' chance to order.

When distributors place an order, they send it to the nearest manufacturing center. On receiving it, if there is enough product on hand to fulfill it, the product is immediately loaded onto an available vehicle for transportation. Otherwise, the order (and any subsequently arriving orders) must wait for the product to be manufactured.