A class of joint production and transportation planning problems under different delivery policies

Abstract

This paper examines a manufacturer's integrated planning problem for the production and the delivery of a set of orders. The manufacturer in this setting can use two vehicle types for outbound shipments. The first type of vehicle is available in unlimited numbers, but expensive. The second type, which is relatively low in its price, has limited and time-varying availability. We analyze the manufacturer's planning problem under different delivery policies characterized by each of the following: whether orders can be split or not, whether they can be consolidated or not, and whether their sizes are restricted to be in integer multiples of vehicle capacities or not.