An analysis of mathematical models for multi-site production and distribution planning

In today's competitive globalised market, it is imperative for enterprises to improve their efficiency, provide better service to customers, and facilitate better production and distribution activities. To do so, organisations are opting for producing at multiple manufacturing sites situated at geographically distinct locations. In the last two decades, there has been seen an increasing trend in articles working in the field of multi-site production and distribution planning. This paper defines multi-site production and distribution planning problem and provide direction for researchers and practitioners to understand the field and develop mathematical models in this area. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the existing mathematical models for identification of current research trend and future research directions. The literature is classified based on the problem formulation approach, aspects of the model, solution approach and applications. Following the classification of the articles; discussion, research findings and future research directions are indicated.