This study focuses on order dispatch decisions within two-echelon supply chains, where order dispatch creates economic shipments to reduce delivery costs. Dispatching orders is often constrained by delivery windows, leading to penalty costs for untimely deliveries. Prolonged dispatch times can increase the lead time of orders and potentially violate these delivery windows. To balance the trade-offs between lead time and economic delivery, this study introduces a simulation-optimization approach for determining optimal ordering and dispatch rules. It emphasizes the intricacies of the order dispatch process and explores how these can be integrated into the simulation-optimization procedure to improve ordering and delivery decisions. The study evaluates various options for implementing dispatch rules, including the number of dispatch queues and prioritized dispatch. The results indicate that a single-queue, quantity-based, first-in-first-out dispatch approach achieves the greatest cost reduction while maintaining a desirable service level.

翻译：本研究聚焦于两层级供应链中的订单调度决策，其中订单调度通过形成经济批量运输以降低配送成本。订单调度常受交付窗口约束，未及时交付将产生惩罚成本。过长的调度时间会增加订单提前期，可能违反交付窗口限制。为平衡提前期与经济配送之间的权衡关系，本研究引入一种仿真-优化方法来确定最优订购与调度规则。该方法着重分析订单调度过程的复杂性，并探究如何将这些复杂性融入仿真-优化流程以改进订购与配送决策。研究评估了多种调度规则实施选项，包括调度队列数量及优先级策略。结果表明：采用单队列、基于数量、先进先出的调度方案，能在维持理想服务水平的同时实现最大成本降低。