Strategic, tactical and operational decisions in multi-national logistics networks: a review and discussion of modelling issues

The rapidly developing worldwide marketplace is leading to the geographical dispersion of production, assembly and distribution operations. This paper deals with three aspects of international logistics networks: strategic, tactical and operational. The strategic level designs the logistics network, including prescribing facility locations, production technologies and plant capacities. The tactical level prescribes material flow management policies, including production levels at all plants, assembly policy, inventory levels, and lot sizes. The operational level schedules operations to assure in-time delivery of final products to customers. This paper reviews the literature that deals with strategic, tactical and operational levels and discusses relevant modelling issues.