Abstract
This paper deals with a complex optimization problem, more specifically the two-stage transportation problem with fixed costs. In our investigated transportation problem, we are modeling a distribution network in a two-stage supply chain. The considered two-stage supply chain includes manufacturers, distribution centers, and customers, and its principal feature is that in addition to the variable transportation costs, we have fixed costs for the opening of the distribution centers, as well as associated with the routes. In this paper, we describe a different approach for solving the problem, which is an effective hybrid genetic algorithm. Our proposed hybrid genetic algorithm is constructed to fit the challenges of the investigated supply chain network design problem, and it is achieved by incorporating a linear programming optimization problem within the framework of a genetic algorithm. Our achieved computational results are compared with the existing solution approaches on a set of 150 benchmark instances from the literature and on a set of 50 new randomly generated instances of larger sizes. The outputs proved that we have developed a very competitive approach as compared to the methods that one can find in the literature.
Highlights
Chains (SCs) are considered to be worldwide networks in which the actors are: suppliers, manufacturer plants, distribution centers (DCs), retailers, and customers, and their principal objective is the fulfillment of the customer needs
This paper focuses on a variation of the fixed cost transportation problem in a supply chain network, namely the two-stage supply chain network design problem in which we consider two kinds of fixed costs: ones for opening the DCs and the others associated with the routes between manufacturers and DCs and between DCs and customers
We organize the remainder of the paper as follows: in Section 2, we define the investigated two-stage supply chain problem with fixed costs and present a set of notations that will be used throughout the paper, and in Section 3, we describe a mixed integer linear formulation of the problem
Summary
Chains (SCs) are considered to be worldwide networks in which the actors are: suppliers, manufacturer plants, distribution centers (DCs), retailers, and customers, and their principal objective is the fulfillment of the customer needs. A supply chain is represented usually as a multi-level structure, while its optimal design has been acknowledged to be an NP-hard problem. For more information on supply chain network design, we refer to Govindan et al [1], Klibi et al [2], Melo et al [3], Wang [4], Dotoli [5,6], etc. For more information on the FCTP including a review of exact and heuristic approaches developed for solving the problem, we refer to Buson et al [9]
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