Affiliations: Department of Industrial Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran | Department of Industrial Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran | School of Industrial Engineering College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Note: [] Corresponding author. Mohammad Reza Khalaj, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Industrial Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. E-mails: [email protected]; [email protected] (M. Modarres); [email protected] (R. Tavakkoli-Moghaddam).
Abstract: A multi-echelon supply chain design problem concerns the structure of the network and allocation of resources of the company to meet the demand forecast. This paper tries to design a multi-echelon supply chain network with five echelons including supplier, cross-dock, plant, distribution center and representative (customer). For this purpose, a mixed-integer mathematical model is developed to investigate the location of cross-docks, distribution centers, and also allocation between each pair of parties in order to minimize total cost of location and transportation. Due to the complexity of the model, a novel genetic algorithm is developed and applied on a real-world case study of Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) in Iran. Experimental results show the performance of the proposed Genetic Algorithm.
Keywords: Multi-echelon supply chain, cross-dock location, distribution center location, meta-heuristic algorithm, genetic algorithm
