Design of Cross-chain Internet Order Fulfillment Centres

Many consumers have embraced the option of ordering via the Internet, which has resulted in an enormous increase in direct orders compared to the times when direct ordering was done by catalogue and phone. The fulfillment process in the supply chain is an important factor for these consumers impacting how long they must wait between ordering and delivery. This fact has significantly increased the importance of the back-end fulfillment process. We present a novel supply chain design to enable cross-chain coordination of order fulfillment operations for internet sales. Shared warehousing facilities are used more and more to achieve competitive advantage. This situation asks for new models to enable a smooth warehousing process for each web shop, but at the same time to ensure overall efficiency and effectiveness. This paper introduces a layout model for shared operations under one roof by simultaneously optimizing the overall facility layout and the area layout.