Analysis and improvement of the product delivery system of a beer producer in Ankara


Pamuk S., Koksalan M., Gullu R.

JOURNAL OF THE OPERATIONAL RESEARCH SOCIETY, vol.55, no.11, pp.1137-1144, 2004 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 55 Issue: 11
  • Publication Date: 2004
  • Doi Number: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601774
  • Journal Name: JOURNAL OF THE OPERATIONAL RESEARCH SOCIETY
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.1137-1144
  • Keywords: distribution, geographical information systems
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

We outline our analysis of the product delivery system of a major beer producer in Ankara, Turkey. We demonstrate a savings potential of up to 25% of distribution costs from the implementation of a number of suggested improvements, most notably that of reducing the number of weekly deliveries to a portion of the customers, and of constructing a geographical partitioning of the city that ensures a balanced distribution of the delivery workload over the days of the week. A geographic information system (GIS) is used to extract coordinate and distance information to be used in the partitioning and sequencing problems. A discussion of the difficulties involved in implementing a GIS project in Turkey is included.