A coordinated scheduling problem for the supply chain in a flexible job shop machine environment

Abstract

In this study, a new coordinated scheduling problem is proposed for the multi-stage supply chain network. A multi-product and multi-period supply chain structure has been developed, including a factory, warehouses, and customers. Furthermore, the flexible job shop scheduling problem is integrated into the manufacturing part of the supply chain network to make the structure more comprehensive. In the proposed problem, each product includes a sequence of operations and is processed on a set of multi-functional machines at the factory to produce the final product. Final products are delivered to the warehouses to meet customers’ demands. If the demands of customers are not fulfilled, the shortage in the form of backorder may occur at any period. The problem is expressed as a bi-objective mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model. The first objective function is to minimize the total supply chain costs. On the other hand, the second objective function aims to minimize the makespan in all periods. A numerical example is presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed MILP model. Five multi-objective decision-making (MODM) methods, namely weighted sum, goal programming, goal attainment, LP metric, and max–min, are used to provide different alternative solutions to the decision-makers. The performance of the methods is evaluated according to both objective function values and CPU time criteria. In order to select the best solution technique, the displaced ideal solution method is applied. The results reveal that the weighted sum method is the best among all MODM methods.