Title: Determination of optimal ordering quantity and reduction of bullwhip effect in a multistage supply chain using genetic algorithm

Authors: Tahera Yesmin; M. Ahsan Akhtar Hasin

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Polashi, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh ' Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Polashi, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh

Abstract: Allocating optimal ordering quantity and mitigation of bullwhip effect is one of the challenging parts in a modern multi echelon supply chain system. Genetic algorithm is used in this research to reduce the bullwhip effect and to determine optimal ordering quantity in a multistage supply chain consisting of six members. Real demand data of a manufacturing company has been used here to conduct the analyses. This research also pinpointed that genetic algorithm can be applied to reduce the cost of total supply chain. To calculate the total cost, five different costs with varying unit holding cost, in inventory cost is used for each of the members of supply chain. This paper also examines the importance of the limit set of the chromosomes of genetic algorithm and concluded that the lower range chromosomes provide a better result by reducing the total supply chain cost more than the range set in higher limit.

Keywords: multistage supply chains; genetic algorithms; bullwhip effect; optimal ordering quantity; total supply chain cost; TSCC; supply chain management; SCM; manufacturing industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISM.2012.052768

International Journal of Integrated Supply Management, 2012 Vol.7 No.4, pp.193 - 214

Accepted: 25 Oct 2012
Published online: 10 Apr 2015 *

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