Prepare Network
Enter facilities, customers, demand, capacity, and costs.
Supply Chain Network Optimizer
Allocate customer demand to facilities while balancing capacity, distance-based transport cost, and fixed facility cost.
Browser-based optimization
Capacity-constrained allocation
Current vs optimized network
Why use this tool?
Decision Supported
Use this tool when you need to decide which warehouses or facilities should serve each customer region under capacity and cost constraints.
What It Tells You
It estimates the lowest-cost feasible allocation, open facilities, flow volumes, utilization, average distance, and savings versus a current assignment.
Example Input
Facility coordinates, capacities, fixed costs, customer coordinates, demand, optional current facility, and transport cost per unit/km.
Sample Output Interpretation
The optimizer shows where demand can be served at lower cost while still respecting available facility capacity.
Optimize Allocation
Minimize transport and open-facility cost.
Map Flows
Review routes, distances, utilization, and flow volumes.
Interpret
Compare current and optimized network decisions.
1. Network Data
Prepare facility and customer records before optimizing the allocation.
Prepare your network CSV
Upload a CSV file with one row for each facility and each customer or demand point.
Facility rowsUse Type = Facility, then provide Name, Latitude, Longitude, Capacity, and Fixed Cost.
Customer rowsUse Type = Customer, then provide Name, Latitude, Longitude, Demand, and optional Current Facility.
Transport costEnter the cost per unit per kilometre once below. Use consistent units and currency.
Example rows: Facility | Midlands DC | 52.4862 | -1.8904 | 5200 | 32000 and Customer | London Region | 51.5072 | -0.1276 | 2600 | Southern DC
What ATH does next: The tool tests feasible facility sets, allocates customer demand to open facilities, and selects the lowest-cost network within the capacity constraints.
Network data, optimization, diagnostics, and exports remain in your browser. The optional map view loads background map tiles from OpenStreetMap for the visible geographic area.
Optional route / distance matrix
For operational use, upload real facility-to-customer lane distances from routing, TMS, GIS, or carrier data. If no matrix is uploaded, ATH uses straight-line Haversine distance from latitude and longitude as a transparent approximation.
Distance example: Facility | Customer | Distance km then Midlands DC | London Region | 178
Limitation: Straight-line distance is useful for early screening, but it does not reflect road distance, travel time, tolls, delivery windows, congestion, vehicle constraints, or carrier rate structures. Map route lines are visual connections unless you provide route distances.
No distance matrix uploaded. Straight-line distance will be used.
Facilities / warehouses
Capacity and fixed cost are used when the optimizer decides whether a facility should be open.
| Name | Latitude | Longitude | Capacity | Fixed cost | Remove |
|---|
Customers / demand points
Current facility is optional. Add it when you want a current-versus-optimized comparison.
| Name | Latitude | Longitude | Demand | Current facility | Remove |
|---|
2. Run Network Optimization
The optimizer minimizes transport cost plus fixed facility cost while satisfying demand and capacity where feasible.
3. Results and Interpretation
Review optimized cost, utilization, flow allocation, and scenario comparison.
| Facility | Customer | Flow | Distance km | Distance source | Transport cost |
|---|
4. Network Map
Facilities, demand points, and optimized flows are shown as an illustrative map-based network view. Route lines show facility-to-customer connections; they are not road-route geometry.
Map background tiles are requested from OpenStreetMap. Facility names, customer names, demand, capacity, cost, flow volumes, and optimization results are not sent by ATH.
Map Controls
Select a facility, customer, or route to review its details.
About Supply Chain Network Optimization
Supply chain network optimization helps decide how customer demand should be assigned to facilities when distance, transport cost, fixed operating cost, and facility capacity all matter.
This ATH tool focuses on a single-echelon allocation problem: facilities serve customer or demand points directly. It is useful for practical network reviews, but it should be paired with operational judgement when lead time, service policy, resilience, carrier constraints, or carbon targets are important.
Guidance
Use comparable units
Keep demand, capacity, and transport-cost units consistent. A pallet-based model should not mix cases, tonnes, and orders without conversion.
Check capacity realism
A mathematically feasible allocation can still be operationally weak if utilization is very high or if service-time constraints are missing.
Use current assignment carefully
Current-versus-optimized savings are meaningful only when current facility assignments and fixed facility costs are realistic.
Methodology, Assumptions, and Limitations
Formula Logic
For each open-facility set, minimize total cost = sum(flow × distance × transport cost per unit/km) + sum(open facility fixed costs), subject to customer demand and facility capacity constraints. Distance comes from the uploaded route matrix where a matching facility-customer lane exists; otherwise ATH uses Haversine straight-line distance from coordinates.
Optimization Approach
The browser enumerates feasible open facility sets for modest scenarios and solves each allocation using min-cost flow. This gives an exact result within the current browser limits.
Limitations
The model is single-echelon and does not yet include facility-location generation, service-level constraints, lead times, carbon, route vehicles, resilience, or multi-period demand.
FAQ
Does the tool choose which facilities to open?
Yes. For modest scenarios it tests feasible open-facility combinations and includes fixed facility cost in the objective.
How are distances calculated?
If you upload a route or distance matrix, matching facility-customer lanes use those distances. Any lane without an uploaded distance uses Haversine straight-line distance from latitude and longitude. Straight-line distance is transparent and useful for early screening, but it is not road distance, travel time, or carrier-rated distance.
Is this a full strategic network design solver?
No. It is a practical browser-based allocation optimizer. Larger multi-echelon or mixed-integer models usually need a dedicated solver.
What if demand exceeds total capacity?
The tool stops and shows a high-risk diagnostic because demand cannot be fully satisfied under the entered capacity constraints.
Is my network data uploaded?
No. CSV parsing, optimization, diagnostics, route drawing, and exports run locally in your browser. The map background uses OpenStreetMap tiles, so tile requests are made for the visible map area, but ATH does not send your facility, customer, demand, capacity, cost, or optimization data.