A Memetic Algorithm for an External Depot Production Routing Problem

This study aims to compare the results of a memetic algorithm with those of the two-phase decomposition heuristic on the external depot production routing problem in a supply chain. We have modified the classical scheme of a genetic algorithm by replacing the mutation operator by three local search algorithms. The first local search consists in exchanging two customers visited the same day. The second consists in trying an exchange between two customers visited at consecutive periods and the third consists in removing a customer from his current tour for a better insertion in any tour of the same period. The tests that were carried out on 128 instances of the literature have highlighted the effectiveness of the memetic algorithm developed in this work compared to the two-phase decomposition heuristic. This is reflected by the fact that the results obtained by the memetic algorithm lead to a reduction in the overall average cost of production, inventory, and transport, ranging from 3.65% to 16.73% with an overall rate of 11.07% with regard to the results obtained with the two-phase decomposition heuristic. The outcomes will be beneficial to researchers and supply chain managers in the choice and development of heuristics and metaheuristics for the resolution of production routing problem.

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A two-phase iterative procedure for the production, inventory and distribution routing problem

10.1063/1.4954568 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Dicky Lim Teik Kyee ◽

Noor Hasnah Moin

Keyword(s):

Iterative Procedure ◽

Two Phase ◽

Routing Problem ◽

Production Inventory

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A robust possibilistic programming model for production-routing problem in a three-echelon supply chain

Journal of Modelling in Management ◽

10.1108/jm2-06-2020-0162 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Mohammad Ali Beheshtinia ◽

Narjes Salmabadi ◽

Somaye Rahimi

Keyword(s):

Supply Chain ◽

Real Life ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Pickup And Delivery ◽

Distribution Centers ◽

Routing Problem ◽

Remarkable Feature ◽

Content Type ◽

Proposed Model ◽

Production Routing

Purpose This paper aims to provide an integrated production-routing model in a three-echelon supply chain containing a two-layer transportation system to minimize the total costs of production, transportation, inventory holding and expired drugs treatment. In the proposed problem, some specifications such as multisite manufacturing, simultaneous pickup and delivery and uncertainty in parameters are considered. Design/methodology/approach At first, a mathematical model has been proposed for the problem. Then, one possibilistic model and one robust possibilistic model equivalent to the initial model are provided regarding the uncertain nature of the model parameters and the inaccessibility of their probability function. Finally, the performance of the proposed model is evaluated using the real data collected from a pharmaceutical production center in Iran. The results reveal the proper performance of the proposed models. Findings The results obtained from applying the proposed model to a real-life production center indicated that the number of expired drugs has decreased because of using this model, also the costs of the system were reduced owing to integrating simultaneous drug pickup and delivery operations. Moreover, regarding the results of simulations, the robust possibilistic model had the best performance among the proposed models. Originality/value This research considers a two-layer vehicle routing in a production-routing problem with inventory planning. Moreover, multisite manufacturing, simultaneous pickup of the expired drugs and delivery of the drugs to the distribution centers are considered. Providing a robust possibilistic model for tackling the uncertainty in demand, costs, production capacity and drug expiration costs is considered as another remarkable feature of the proposed model.

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