A multi-objective approach under uncertainty for designing a green meat supply chain network

Abstract

<p>Traditional logistics management has not focused on environmental concerns when designing and optimizing food supply chain networks. However, the protection of the environment is one of the main factors that should be considered based on environmental protection regulations of countries. In this thesis, environmental concerns with a mathematical model are investigated to design and configure a multi-period, multi-product, multi-echelon green meat supply chain network. A multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming formulation is developed to optimize three objectives simultaneously: minimization of the total cost, minimization of the total CO2 emissions released from transportation, and maximization of the total capacity utilization. To demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed optimization model, a green meat supply chain network for Southern Ontario, Canada is designed. A solution approach based on augmented εε-constraint method is developed for solving the proposed model. As a result, a set of Pareto-optimal solutions is obtained. Finally, the impacts of uncertainty on the proposed model are investigated using several decision trees. Optimization of a food supply chain, particularly a meat supply chain, based on multiple objectives under uncertainty using decision trees is a new approach in the literature.</p>