Towards Leveled Inventory Routing for the Automotive Industry

Abstract

Motivated by the success of Japanese car manufacturers, there is an in-creasing interest in the introduction of leveled logistics concepts. These conceptsare characterized by leveled quantities and periodic pick up and arrival times. Asa consequence, new requirements regarding the planning of material replenishmentresult. Planning systems based on the sequential MRP-logic do not take levelinginto account and might therefore result in inacceptable volatility. To this end, wepropose a modeling framework for leveled replenishment. Building blocks com-prise a module for vehicle routing, where cost optimal routes are determined, andinventory control, where leveled quantities are generated. The approach extends thewell-known concepts of vehicle routing with respect to the requirements of the au-tomotive industry.