A new efficient heursitic for the design and analysis of distribution systems

Distribution systems are one of the most difficult network topologies to analyze and most approaches in the literature are heuristic. Assuming a FIFO allocation policy and base-stock inventory policy, we develop a heuristic procedure to approximate the base-stock levels of all the locations in the system. The heuristic not only performs much better than the recent approaches utilized in the literature but is also extremely easy to implement. Since it is in form of compact equations. This enables us to test the sensitivity of the base-stock levels to changes in the key system parameters and to understand how the locations in the system are affected by changes in the supply chain configuration.