Decision Support System for Distribution Problems

Abstract

Distribution problems have become increasingly important with the development of e-commerce. The hub-and-spoke approach is widely accepted for distribution networks and has been developed in many areas including courier services, telecommunications, and airline travel planning. A hub-and-spoke network consists of a series of connections and a few hubs. Such networks indirectly reduce unit transportation and operational costs by taking advantage of economies of scale. In this way, the overall economic benefit of the entire network can be increased. In this study, a hub-and-spoke network was modeled to choose their service levels of the risk of a hub becoming unusable, using intermodal transportation. Hubs become unusable due to weather conditions, natural disasters, labor disputes, and other reasons. In this case, backup hubs need to be assigned to transfer the flows of the unusable hubs to other hubs. Service level can be defined as the arrival of customers' products at their chosen delivery time. Recent studies have shown that carbon emissions become critical if necessary measures are not taken. Additionally, this study result contributes to reducing carbon emissions costs and creating a sustainable distribution network. © 2023 IEEE.