Multi Stage Investment Planning and Customer Selection in A Two Echelon Multi-Period Supply Chain

B. Abbasi, Aboulfazl Mirzazadeh, Mohammad Mohammadi
2018 Scientia Iranica. International Journal of Science and Technology  
In the supply chain of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), logistics costs are a major part of the expenses. In the low levels of these chains, we usually face a Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). In practice however, due to the high cost of service in many cases, some customers are not selected to serve. Investment-related restrictions, in many cases, make it impossible to serve some of the potential customers. In such conditions, designing a supply chain network including a location-allocation
more » ... lem in the warehouse, Multiple Depot Vehicle Routing Problem (MDVRP) at the level of distribution, and customer selection at the retail level in several periods of time is considered. In this issue, in addition to certain methods that can be used in small sizes, meta-heuristic algorithms have been used to solve large-scale models. With the aim of improving the performance, if not improving a few diversifications, algorithms are temporarily enhanced and eventually, using statistical approaches, it has been demonstrated that this method could have a significant impact on the quality of responses. Genetic algorithm (GA) and Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm have been used for this purpose.
doi:10.24200/sci.2018.5608.1373 fatcat:obu4agcyenavxowrxhy6nrk3da