A robust optimisation model for global distribution networks design

Distribution networks are the fundamental elements in management of successful supply chains. Increasing competitive markets and the remarkable rate of growth in customers' expectation levels all emphasise on the necessity of transforming the local supply chains into the global ones. In fact, it is required to penetrate into global market so that more market shares can be obtained and the entire chain gain be enhanced. On the other hand, the network activities may be threatened by many different uncertainties, regarding today's world situation. Hence, a mixed‐integer mathematical model is developed in this paper to address a multi‐product, multi‐source, and multi‐capacity network design problem in a global state. Moreover, a robust optimisation technique has been applied in this paper as an efficient approach in dealing with unstable circumstances. Afterwards, the counterpart of the mathematical model is determined by using the recently applied extensions in robust optimisation theory. Finally, some numerical examples are solved to take the model performance into consideration.