Abstract—This study investigates the business impacts of
sustainability and managerial insights in terms of the
robustness of a logistics system. A mathematical optimization
model and a distribution responsiveness index are developed in
this paper. The index includes stocking distributiveness,
transportation link diversity, and service level. The study
identified a discontinuous relationship between costs and
responsiveness through the operational decision of
redistribution. Knowing this relationship will allow managers
to determine the minimum investment to drive performance
improvement and thus, make the best business-level decision at
the appropriate moment. In a proper ratio of urgent to
non-urgent, the advantage of item-reallocation will be
emphasized if distribution responsiveness is better after its
reallocation. After reallocation, the distribution center can
achieve better distribution responsiveness with low inventory
costs and total cost (R/C ratio). When transportation costs
increase after item-reallocation, item-reallocation cannot
obviously help the distribution center enhance responsiveness
(R/C ratio). When fixed costs are low and facilities increase
after item-reallocation, distribution responsiveness (R/C ratio)
is likewise high regardless of item-reallocation.
Index Terms—Stocking item reshuffling (SIR),
location-inventory network, Distribution network
responsiveness.
Yenming J. Chen is with the National Kaohsiung 1st University of
Science & Technology, Taiwan (e-mail: yjjchen@nkfust.edu.tw).
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Cite: Yenming J. Chen, "Item-Location Assignment to Responsiveness for
Fulfilling Rush Demands in a Manufacturing Network," International Journal of Modeling and Optimization vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 493-498, 2014.