Inventory Routing Problem for Perishable Products by Considering Customer Satisfaction and Green Criteria

Abstract

This paper presents a new model for Inventory Routing Problem (IRP) considering simultaneously economic criteria, customer satisfaction level and environmental aspect for perishable products with expiration date. For this consideration, a multi-objective mathematical model has been developed. The first objective focuses on traditional inventory and distribution costs as well as recycling cost of perished products. The second objective concerns in customer satisfaction by minimization of three criteria, such as the number of delays (deliver after time windows), the quantity of backordered, and the frequency of backorders. The third objective considers Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission, produced by different IRP activities. The proposed model is also enabled to investigate the possibility of using diesel and electrical vehicles in urban transportation. In order to cope with complexity of proposed model, Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II) is tuned and applied. Finally, sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the effects of variation of customer satisfaction and green aspects in economic side.