Advanced Distribution Network Design and Optimisation Training Course

Course overview

Distribution networks often evolve through inherited warehouse locations, customer exceptions, changing transport contracts and acquisitions rather than deliberate design. This creates avoidable cost-to-serve, unstable service performance, excess inventory and unclear trade-offs between centralisation, regional fulfilment and direct shipment. Senior supply chain professionals need to quantify these trade-offs before committing capital, changing carrier strategies or consolidating facilities.

This advanced course teaches participants to design and optimise multi-echelon distribution networks using demand, cost, capacity, service and risk data. Participants build network models; define candidate warehouse and cross-dock scenarios; allocate customers and flows; evaluate transport lane economics; model inventory positioning; and test sensitivity to volume, fuel, labour, lead-time and service assumptions. The course also addresses make-versus-buy logistics decisions, resilience analysis, carbon considerations and board-level business-case development.

Delivered over five instructor-led days, the programme combines technical instruction with guided modelling exercises in Excel Solver, AnyLogistix and ArcGIS Pro. Participants work through a realistic distribution network case and progressively develop an investment-ready network design recommendation. They leave with a documented scenario model, network maps, cost-to-serve analysis, risk assumptions, implementation roadmap and executive decision pack that can be adapted to their own operation.

The course is suited to professionals who already work with logistics data, warehouse operations, transport planning or supply chain strategy and who need to lead network studies with greater analytical confidence.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Build a baseline distribution network model using demand, facility, lane, capacity and cost data
• Calculate landed cost-to-serve by customer, product flow, channel and distribution node
• Apply centre-of-gravity and mixed-integer optimisation methods to evaluate facility location options
• Configure network scenarios in AnyLogistix for warehouse, cross-dock, direct-ship and hub-and-spoke alternatives
• Optimise customer allocation and transport lane flows subject to service, capacity and lead-time constraints
• Model inventory positioning and safety-stock implications across centralised and decentralised networks
• Conduct sensitivity and resilience analysis for demand shocks, facility disruption, fuel escalation and capacity loss
• Produce an executive network recommendation including NPV, implementation sequencing, risks and decision criteria

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Supply Chain Managers — who must justify network changes against cost, service and working-capital targets
• Distribution Network Managers — who own warehouse footprints, customer allocation rules and regional service performance
• Logistics Managers — who need to redesign transport flows, depot roles and carrier operating models
• Supply Chain Analysts — who build scenario models and translate operational data into investment recommendations
• Warehouse and Fulfilment Managers — who need to assess the capacity, labour and service consequences of network decisions
• Procurement and Transport Sourcing Managers — who evaluate 3PL, warehousing and freight-contract options within a network strategy

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in logistics, distribution, supply chain analysis or warehouse and transport operations. They should be comfortable interpreting demand volumes, freight rates, warehouse costs, lead times, service levels and basic inventory measures such as safety stock and inventory turns. Working knowledge of Excel, including formulas, PivotTables and charts, is assumed; prior use of Solver is helpful but not essential. Familiarity with linear programming, GIS software or AnyLogistix is not required, as these are taught in context. This is not a suitable first course in supply chain fundamentals.

Training methodology

The instructor uses short technical briefings followed by structured modelling labs built around a multi-region distributor case. Participants clean and structure network data, map flows, develop baseline economics, and compare alternative facility and transport configurations in Excel Solver and AnyLogistix. Small groups challenge assumptions on service promises, capacity, inventory and disruption risk, then present competing recommendations. Daily outputs feed an end-of-course application plan, enabling each participant to define the data, stakeholders, decisions and governance needed for a live network study.

Course outline

Day 1: Establishing the network design baseline

• Distribution network design decisions and value-driver hierarchy
• Data architecture for demand, SKU, customer, facility and lane records
• Demand segmentation by channel, geography, service promise and order profile
• Cost-to-serve decomposition for warehousing, transport, inventory and handling
• Baseline network mapping with ArcGIS Pro
• Facility capacity, utilisation and throughput constraint modelling
• SCOR DS metrics for reliability, responsiveness, cost and asset management

Workshop: Participants build a baseline network map and cost-to-serve dataset for a multi-site distributor, identifying the largest cost and service exceptions.

Day 2: Facility location and network configuration

• Centre-of-gravity analysis and its operational limitations
• Candidate site screening using demand, labour, property and transport criteria
• Fixed versus variable cost structures in distribution facilities
• Centralised, regional, cross-dock and direct-ship network architectures
• Customer allocation logic and service-radius design
• Excel Solver formulation for capacitated facility location
• Mixed-integer decision variables, constraints and solution interpretation

Workshop: Participants formulate and solve a capacitated warehouse-location model in Excel Solver and compare the result with the current footprint.

Day 3: Optimising flows, transport and inventory

• Lane-rate construction and transport cost curves
• Primary, secondary and last-mile transport flow design
• Load consolidation, delivery frequency and minimum-drop economics
• Network flow optimisation in AnyLogistix
• Multi-echelon inventory positioning and risk pooling
• Safety-stock effects of lead time, demand variability and decentralisation
• Service-level constraints and order-cut-off trade-offs

Workshop: Participants model alternative customer allocations and transport flows in AnyLogistix, producing a service-cost comparison for three network options.

Day 4: Risk, sustainability and investment evaluation

• Scenario design for volume growth, demand migration and product-mix change
• Sensitivity analysis for fuel, labour, rent and carrier-rate escalation
• Facility disruption and lane-failure resilience modelling
• Dual sourcing, reserve capacity and contingency inventory options
• Transport emissions estimation by mode, distance and load factor
• Capital expenditure, operating expenditure and total-cost-of-ownership analysis
• NPV, payback and hurdle-rate evaluation for network investments

Workshop: Participants stress-test their preferred network against disruption and cost scenarios, then produce a risk-adjusted investment comparison.

Day 5: Turning optimisation into an executable network plan

• Selecting decision criteria and resolving cost-service trade-offs
• Validating model assumptions with operations, finance, sales and procurement
• Phased migration planning for facilities, inventory, customers and transport lanes
• Warehouse ramp-up, cutover and operational readiness risks
• 3PL sourcing implications and commercial transition planning
• Executive dashboard design for network performance and benefits tracking
• Governance cadence, data ownership and post-implementation model maintenance

Workshop: Participants complete and present an executive network design pack containing the recommended scenario, business case, implementation roadmap and governance plan.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel Solver, AnyLogistix, ArcGIS Pro, SCOR Digital Standard

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions