Supply Chain Network Design under Demand Uncertainty and Supply Disruptions: A Distributionally Robust Optimization Approach

Abstract EN

We develop a robust optimization model for designing a three-echelon supply chain network that consists of manufacturers, distribution centers, and retailers under both demand uncertainty and supply disruptions.

The market demands are assumed to be random variables with known distribution and the supply disruptions caused by some of the facilities faults or connection links interruptions are formulated by several scenarios with unknown occurrence probabilities.

In particular, we assume the probabilities that the disruption scenarios happen belong to the two predefined uncertainty sets, named box and ellipsoid uncertainty sets, respectively.

Through mathematical deductions, the proposed robust SCN design models can be transformed into the tractable linear program for box uncertainty and into second-order cone program for ellipsoid uncertainty.

We further offer propositions with proof to show the equivalence of the transformed problems with the original ones.

The applications of the proposed models together with solution approaches are investigated in a real case to design a tea supply chain network and validate their effectiveness.

Numerical results obtained from model implementation and sensitivity analysis arrive at important practical insights.