Dynamic Coal Logistics Facility Location under Demand Uncertainty

Jiang Wu,Jingfeng Li

doi:10.4236/jss.2014.29006

Abstract

In this paper, dynamic facility location and supply chain planning are studied through minimizing the costs of facility location, path selection and transportation of coal under demand uncertainty. The proposed model dynamically incorporates possible changes in transportation network, facility investment costs, operating cost and changes in facility location. In addition, the time variation and the demand uncertainty for coal in each period of the planning horizon is taken into account to determine the optimal facility location and the optimal production volumes. Computational process and results are presented for the model in a java language. Also, an empirical case study in Shanxi province is conducted in order to investigate the dynamic effects of traffic congestion and demand uncertainty on facility location design and total system costs.

Highlights

In the volatile market environment, to ensure the coal supply chain (SC) in the Chinese major energy province of Shanxi stability is an important part of ensure the stable supply of energy in china
3.1 Network Description In this paper, a dynamic facility location model is proposed to cope with these issues for the coal supply network in Shanxi
The analyses of the results from the examples showed the flexibility of the model in capturing the features of real-world problems

Summary

Introduction

In the volatile market environment, to ensure the coal supply chain (SC) in the Chinese major energy province of Shanxi stability is an important part of ensure the stable supply of energy in china. Logistics investment and operations cost was huge to improve the coal supply capacity and efficiency. These expenses keep growing as the transformation of economic development in the province. Strategic planning problems as the allocation of demands and the sites of facilities in distribution networks are often multi-objective in nature. Some researchers investigated uncertainty which is the major sources of vagueness in facility location model. (2014) Dynamic Coal Logistics Facility Location under Demand Uncertainty. A facility location model is proposed for coal supply chain in Shanxi. This research is among the first attempt to solve the facility location problems by java programming.

Literature Review

Model Development

Solution Method

Conclusions and Future Work