Delivery pattern and transportation planning in grocery retailing

Andreas Holzapfel, Alexander Hübner, Heinrich Kuhn and Michael G. Sternbeck

European Journal of Operational Research, 2016, vol. 252, issue 1, 54-68

Abstract: This paper develops a planning concept for defining repetitive delivery patterns according to which stores of a grocery retailer are supplied from a distribution center. Applying repetitive delivery patterns offers major advantages when scheduling the workforce for shelf replenishment, defining cyclic transportation routes and managing warehouse capacities. In doing so, all logistics subsystems of a retail chain, i.e., warehousing, transportation and instore logistics, are jointly scheduled. We propose a novel model to minimize total costs in all associated subsystems of a retail distribution chain. A solution approach is developed for clustering stores and selecting delivery patterns that reflects practical requirements. A broad numerical analysis demonstrates cost savings of 2.5 percent on average compared to a state-of-the-art approach (see Sternbeck & Kuhn, 2014). This considerable cost reduction potential is confirmed by applying the suggested approach to a real case of a major European grocery retailer.

Keywords: Retailing; Distribution; Instore logistics; Discrete optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221715011753
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ejores:v:252:y:2016:i:1:p:54-68

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2015.12.036

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Operational Research is currently edited by Roman Slowinski, Jesus Artalejo, Jean-Charles. Billaut, Robert Dyson and Lorenzo Peccati

More articles in European Journal of Operational Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().