A stochastic discounted multi-objective solid transportation problem for breakable items using Analytical Hierarchy Process

Abstract

In this paper, a multi-objective solid transportation problem (MOSTP) for a breakable item is considered with two different criteria: cost and time for transportation. Here breaking for the item depends on two modes- (i) type of conveyance and (ii) transported amount. The item breaks at constant rate for the modes of conveyance and randomly for the transported amount. The requirement of the destination is crisp, but due to presence of breakability, the fulfillment of demand at destination is stochastic, which is solved by the chance-constraint method. In this paper, a nested discount (IQD within AUD) is presented on the transportation cost. The considered model is formulated to minimize the total transportation cost and time to transport all units of the item with respect to the transported amounts of the item from origins to destinations. Thus the problem reduces to a multi-objective problem. A set of pareto optimal solutions are obtained by multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA). The best solution out of this set is presented using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The MOSTP has also been formulated with entropy function defined by Shannons measure of entropy. The entropy function is used as an additional objective function which acts as a measure of dispersion. To illustrate the model, numerical example has been presented. The effect of entropy on transported amount is illustrated. A sensitivity analysis on the total cost due to the changes in breakability rate is presented.