Multisite aggregate production and distribution planning: a review

Increase in the demand of products causes a company to change its manufacturing system from single-plant to multi-plant (or, multi-site) with an objective to gain competitive advantage in the global manufacturing scenario. Multi-site production and distribution (P-D) planning have been studied and practiced by the researchers and practitioners over the past two decades. A good size of literature has been published and trend is continuing. In the light of impact of multi-site manufacturing in gaining commercial advantage in global competition scenario, this review is dedicated to multi-site aggregate production planning (MSAPP) and multi-site aggregate P-D planning (MSAPDP). This review focuses on analysing the major research gaps and unaddressed areas of MSAPP/MSAPDP. It has been felt that switching from discrete to continuous and pure mathematical to simulation and agent based models along with consideration of economical and environmental aspects have become very important to effectively deal with real world MSAPP/MSAPDP problems.