Leveling inbound flow : item allocation under fixed capacity inbound flow at the Ahold Delhaize Inbound Logistics department

Ahold Delhaize Inbound Logistics is an internal wholesaler within Ahold Delhaize, an international food-retail group. The department imports goods from international suppliers on behalf of its banners and stores these goods in its warehouses. Currently, at times of increased demand, the warehouses experience capacity problems and are therefore not able to process all goods at the appropriate time. In this study, a new approach is researched that levels the inbound flow throughout the year by assigning the items to a weekly number of TUs that is fixed throughout the year. The study provides insights into the ways in which the appropriate number of weekly TUs and the item allocation to them can be determined. It analyses the effects on ADIL’s operations, costs and inventory, based on which an advice on the feasibility of this new approach is formulated.