A Multi-Objective Green Hub Location Problem with Multi Item-Multi Temperature Joint Distribution for Perishable Products in Cold Supply Chain

Abstract

This paper investigates a bi-objective green hub location problem, in which multiple perishable products with various storage temperatures can be distributed simultaneously in a cold supply chain (CSC). The objectives of this problem include minimizing the system's total cost (including transportation, hub establishment, adjustment of the storage compartments' temperatures, and carbon emission costs) and maximizing the quality of the delivered product to the customer via the proposed model. Mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) in the GAMS software was employed to formulate this problem. Then, the ε-Constraint method was adopted to solve the presented bi-objective model to obtain the Pareto frontier and consequently, a numerical example based on the CAB (Civil Aeronautics Board) database is presented to validate the applicability of the model. The solutions of the model provide information regarding the hub location (HL), allocating customers to the hubs, allocating customers to the vehicles, and the sequence of vehicles' services for the Multi Item-Multi Temperature Joint Distribution of perishable products in CSCs. Moreover, the final results revealed the existence of a contradictory exchange between the two objectives of this paper, implying that the higher is the quality of the delivered perishable product to the customer, the greater is the system's total cost. The novelty of the proposed model compared to other hub location problems (HLPs) lies in the integration of the tactical/operational decisions with strategic decisions to provide logistic solutions in CSCs by considering the carbon emissions as an environmental factor in the transportation systems for the simultaneous distribution of dissimilar storage temperatures perishable products within a CSC. The proposed model in this research can help the distributers of perishable products by maintaining the quality of the delivered items and reducing the system's total costs and considering the carbon emissions of transportation systems. This study has practical implications for the logistics and CSCs managers to not only establish a distribution network for multiple perishable products on the basis of the findings, but also respond to the environmental sustainability.