Investigating the effect of delivery time windows in Metro's supply chain****

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Transportation and inventory control in the supply chain is a major cost for food retailers like Metro. These retailers must meet customer demand for various types of products, for example, frozen food, produce, meat, and dairy. For such products, the number of deliveries per week and which days the stores receive deliveries are important decisions. Fresher commodities require more deliveries as do stores with smaller backrooms, as they cannot hold as much inventory. Stores cannot be overloaded, so deliveries need to be dispersed over the week. Deliveries must be scheduled to ensure promotional products are in stores before the sales promotional dates. Deliveries must also be scheduled to ensure stock levels are maintained through the higher sales volumes associated with weekends. Delivery windows must be associated with the right store order schedule so that the supply chain can be optimized. The current research project focuses on the development of a model that could determine the best delivery time windows given various constraints in a supply chain. Using this model, the company will benefit from assigning trucks and items with due consideration of required inventory at each store and distribution centers.******