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

供应链中的运输和库存控制是麦德龙等食品零售商的主要成本。这些零售商必须满足客户对各种产品的需求，例如冷冻食品，农产品，肉类和乳制品。对于这些产品，每周的交付数量以及商店接收交付的日期是重要的决定。更新鲜的商品需要更多的交付，因为它们不能容纳那么多的库存。商店不能超载，所以送货需要分散在一周内。必须安排库存，以确保促销产品在促销日期之前到达商店。还必须安排库存，以确保通过与周末相关的较高销售量来维持库存水平。交付窗口必须与正确的商店订单计划相关联，以便优化供应链。目前的研究项目的重点是开发一个模型，可以确定最佳的交货时间窗口给定的各种限制在供应链中。 使用这种模式，公司将受益于分配卡车和物品，并适当考虑每个商店和配送中心所需的库存。

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.******