Distribution Network Design

In the wake of increasingly complicated supply chains, distribution network design plays a key role in controlling the cost of doing business. And, in a world of shrinking margins, controlling the cost of doing business can be the factor that puts you ahead of your competitors.

Distribution Network Design Solutions

An optimal distribution network is intelligently designed to minimize costs by providing the customer the right goods, in the right quantity, at the right place, and at right time. A tall order, right? In most organizations, controlling distribution costs involves striking a balance between warehousing and transportation. While more distribution centers drives down the cost of transportation, the opposite holds true as well. Tompkins distribution network design services attempt to answer questions like:

How many DCs should you have?
Where should they be located?
What should be the configuration and strategy of each DC?
Which group of customers should each DC service?
How will customers order from and how will each DC be replenished?
How should shipments be scheduled?
What should the service levels be?
Which transportation methods should be used?

Tompkins Associates pioneered the use of computers for modeling and analyzing distribution networks. Nobody does it with the depth of understanding or attention to detail that we do. We choose from an array of the best modeling tools to best suit each client's operation.

Understanding Distribution Network Design

Because the volatile forces at play in the market today can cause a company's momentum to vanish into thin air, we design into your distribution network the flexibility to adjust to changing market conditions, including:

Geographic shifts in production and consumption
Market segmentation, new markets and new customer service requirements
Cost increases in energy, plant and equipment maintenance, and labor
Government regulation or deregulation
Product proliferation and product life cycle
Competitor adjustments
Events in the economy

Not only will we create the most demand-flexible, cost-effective distribution network, as a full-service consulting and integration firm, we can build it for you and step you and your employees through the transition to the new network. Tompkins can provide your firm everything from site selection and real estate services to construction and integration services.

Distribution Network Analyses

Some of the analyses performed during a distribution network design project: