Chapter 1 addresses theory and application of the distribution network
design and distribution concepts for E-commerce. Gortz and Klose consider
the general Capacitated Facility Location Problem (CFLP), which is a basic
model for various network design problems. They review the existing solution
methods for this hard combinatorial problem and suggest a new type of lower
bounds based on column generation. The lower bound is used in a branch &
bound algorithm and tested in a computational experiment. Bauer stresses
the need for considering cost and capacities of warehouse processes when designing
a distribution network. She introduces a "Modular Node Model" for
that purpose and shows the impact of the warehouse processes on the resulting
network. Blaemhaf, Smeets and van Nunen report an interesting practical
case of supply chain design for the Dutch pig husbandry. The network consisting
of farmers, slaughter houses, wholesalers and retailers is optimized using
a mixed integer programming model. Daduna and Lenz deal with the often
neglected aspects of physical distribution caused by "Online-Shopping".
They investigate its impact on the traffic for the "last mile", both for the
commercial freight deliveries and the private shopping trips.