Order allocation and procurement transport planning in apparel supply chain: A utility-based possibilistic-flexible programming approach

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the integrated decisions of the physical supply channel on the global scale including the supplier selection, order allocation, and transportation planning under uncertainty. In detail, this study addresses the supply decision-making problem in a multi-source, multi-product, and multi-mode transportation in accordance with the price discounts. To this end, a multi-objective mixed integer linear programming model is developed to jointly determine the best suppliers, and purchasing quantities along with the number and type of transportation modes. Three important objective functions, i.e., total logistics costs, total late deliveries and total value of purchasing are optimized in our proposed mathematical model. Then, a fuzzy multi-choice goal programming model with the utility function is presented to solve the multi-objective formulation. A novel flexible-possibilistic programming approach is proposed to cope with the epistemic uncertainty and the flexibility of constraints based on the expected value and chance constraint programming concept. Finally, a numerical study in the apparel supply chain is carried out to show the model usefulness and the solution algorithm effectiveness.