Title: Glowworm swarm optimisation algorithm for nonlinear fixed charge transportation problem in a single stage supply chain network

Authors: P. Manimaran; V. Selladurai

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology, Virudhunagar – 626 001, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore – 641 014, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: In this paper, Glowworm swarm optimisation (GSO) is proposed to solve nonlinear fixed charge transportation problem (NLFCTP) in a single stage supply chain network. In a fixed charge transportation problem, fixed cost is incurred for every route, along with the variable cost that is proportional to the amount shipped. In some cases, the variable cost is associated with quadratic variables in which the cost function will be nonlinear. This problem is more difficult to solve due to presence of the fixed costs that result in discontinuities in the objective function. The objective of this paper is to determine the least cost transportation plan that minimises the total variable and fixed costs while satisfying the supply and demand requirements of each plant and customer. The performance of GSO is compared in terms of total distribution cost with a spanning tree-based genetic algorithm. The comparison reveals that GSO provides better solutions.

Keywords: distribution costs; glowworm swarm optimisation; GSO; fixed costs; NP-hard; supply chain management; SCM; fixed charge transport; single stage supply chains; variable costs; nonlinear.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLEG.2014.064285

International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation, 2014 Vol.6 No.1, pp.42 - 55

Received: 31 Mar 2013
Accepted: 31 Oct 2013
Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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