The Holding and the Transportation Costs Optimization in a Simple Supply Chain: The multiple transporters case

摘要

In this paper, we consider the optimization of the physical flows along a simple supply chain in a single-product and multiple transporters context. The studied problem can be assimilated to the lot-sizing problem (LSP) while having its own specificities. A mathematical formulation of the problem is given and a just in time policy is applied to calculate the different dates at each entity of the supply chain. Then, we propose to generalize the Branch and Bound Procedure (BBP) developed in previous work for the single transporter case to the multiple transporters case. The aim is to find both the optimal sequence of lots size and the optimal sequence of the transporters that have to deliver these lots from the supplier to the customer. These sequences have on the one hand to satisfy all system constraints including the final customer due dates, and on the other hand, to minimize the total cost induced by the various operations of production, holding and transportation.