Title: Particle Swarm Optimisation for fixed-charge transportation problem in a Multistage Supply Chain Network

Authors: P. Manimaran, V. Selladurai, W.C. Yeh, M. Sivakumar

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, National Tsing Hua University, P.O. Box 24-60, Hsinchu, Taiwan. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sree Sowdambika College of Engineering, Aruppukottai, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: This work develops a mathematical model for a Multistage Supply Chain Network (MSCN) with a fixed charge for each route and proposes novel solution procedure based on Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO). The MSCN problem involves selection of facilities to open, and the distribution network design must satisfy demand at minimum cost. The problem becomes Nondeterministic Polynomial-time (NP) hard while considering fixed charges. The novel idea in this work is the adoption of fixed charges for each production flow between stages. Numerical results are presented and compared with approximate and lower bound values to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Keywords: PSO; particle swarm optimisation; multistage supply chains; supply chain networks; fixed charge transport; supply chain management; SCM; mathematical modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2011.041692

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2011 Vol.9 No.3, pp.328 - 350

Published online: 06 May 2015 *

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