An integrated model for cash transfer system design problem

This paper presents an integrated model that incorporates strategic, tactical, and operational decisions for a cash transfer management system of a bank. The aim of the model is to decide on the location of cash management centers, number and routes of vehicles, and the cash inventory management policies to minimize the cost of owning and operating a cash transfer system while maintaining a pre-defined service level. Owing to the difficulty of finding optimal decisions in such integrated models, an iterative solution approach is proposed in which strategic, tactical, and operational problems are solved separately via a feedback mechanism. Numerical results show that such an approach is quite effective in reaching greatly improved solutions with just a few iterations, making it a promising approach for similar integrated models.