CONTROL OF A SUPPLY CHAIN WITH PRODUCTION AND TRANSPORTATION DELAYS

In this paper we develop a dynamical model of a distributed production system taking into account the lead times of each site and the transportation among different sites, which introduce a delay on the effect of control actions on the inventory levels of the sites. We linearize about typical operative conditions, and show the intuitive result that it is not possible to decouple the buffer levels from the external (unknown) demand. Structural properties of this model are presented and different policies are defined in order to prevent undesired phenomena and to guarantee the optimal management of the overall system.