The multiple vehicle inventory routing problem for perishable products

In the last decade many companies have recognized that important cost savings and improved service levels can be achieved by effectively integrating production plans, inventory control and transportation policies throughout their supply chains. In this paper, an integrated multi-commodity production and distribution planning model is presented. A proposed Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) model is developed with the objective of producing an optimum integrated production and distribution plan. The model considers the number of products to be produced and distributed in the different planning periods. It takes into account the production capacity, the vehicles capacity, the demand of each product, and the total costs associated with production, inventory, and transportation. An illustrative numerical example is presented.