Energy efficiency optimisation in supply chain networks: impact of inventory management

Abstract

This work describes the development of a model to address sustainability in supply chain networks in comparing environmental impact to cost optimisation. It takes into account the effect of inventory management policies on energy consumption in transportation and storage. This work first focusses on a base case with one product type, involving one transportation link (from the supplier to the distributor) and one storage node. In addition, an extended case is considered, including additionally the transportation from the distributor to the customers. Based on real data, our results show that the most energy efficient solution is not necessarily detrimental to the economic profits. Also, a higher performance does not always mean a higher energy use: increasing the service level can indeed decrease the energy use. Finally, our analysis shows that the model can be extended to an entire supply chain network.