Read the article “Redesigning a Warehouse Network-EJOR.

pdf ” and answer the

following questions in no more than two pages(see attached PDF).

1. What is the problem addressed in this paper? What are the benefits and
drawbacks of warehouses consolidation in a distribution network?
2. Briefly, in a few sentences (avoid symbols and equations as much as possible),
describe the mathematical model developed in this paper. In particular, what is the
objective, and what are the sets, decision variables, and types of constraints in the
model?
3. What type of optimization model and what algorithm/software were used to solve
it? What was the size of the problem?
4. What kind of distribution did the customer demand have?
5. Who provided the data for the model parameters?
6. Which solution was prescribed by the model for the 10-hours access time base
line scenario (describe very briefly)?
7. Since the model is not linear, parameter ranges cannot be readily obtained.
Then, how is sensitivity analysis conducted (as in this paper)? For which parameters
was sensitivity analysis performed?
8. Assuming that any number between eight and 13 hours of customer access time
is acceptable/desirable, which access time would you pick, given the cost-
service tradeoff obtained by sensitivity analysis in Figure 8?