Optimizing a Multi Period Deterministic Inventory Routing Problem in Agriculture Industries

Abstract

This paper develops a solving model for multi-period deterministic inventory routing problem (MP-DIRP) in supply chain focus on agriculture industries. The issue is how to improve the perishable product delivery process from a distribution centre (DC) to a collection of customers over a planning horizon. This paper proposed a model to achieve optimization in terms of costs respectively. The transportation problem is solved by using a simulation technique and developed using an algebraic modelling language which is known as a mathematical programming language (AMPL) to find an optimal solution within the period. The route for a distribution centre (DC) is set up by a supplier depending on the number of products assigned to each customer, which contributes to determining the best inventory routing problem (IRP) for each period. As a result, by applying the transportation model developed in this study, it is expected that the industries can achieve optimization by minimizing their total inventory and transportation costs.