Two heuristic methods based on decomposition to the integrated multi-agent supply chain scheduling and distribution problem

ABSTRACT

Supply chain integration has become one of the most attractive topics for researchers in recent years. One of the advantages of this integration is in improving overall profit in comparison to separate decisions. In this study, an integrated scheduling and distribution problem is investigated. One of the contributions of this paper is to study this problem from a multi-agent viewpoint. In this case, each agent has a set of jobs with its own objective and compete with each other to acquire supply chain resources. Here, a two-agent problem is discussed where the objectives of the agents are the minimization of the total tardiness and the total cost of distribution. A mathematical formulation and two heuristics based on decomposition approaches are presented. In the first approach, a modified Benders decomposition is presented. Also, some valid inequalities are introduced to increase the convergence speed of this algorithm. In the second approach, a decomposition and cutting approach is developed. The results represent the good performance of both algorithms in comparison to other exact methods.

Keywords:

• Batch delivery
• multi-agent scheduling
• routing decision
• decomposition

AMS Subject Classifications:

• 90B06
• 90B35

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ali Gharaei

Ali Gharaei received his PhD degree in Industrial Engineering at University of Tehran, Iran. He is a reviewer of top scientific journals such as Applied Soft Computing and Computers & Industrial Engineering. Moreover, his researches have been published in leading publication outlets such as Applied Soft Computing, Computers & Industrial Engineering, and International Transactions in Operation Research. He is particularly interested in supply chain planning, business process management, artificial intelligence and scheduling.

Fariborz Jolai

Fariborz Jolai received his PhD degree in Industrial Engineering at Institut polytechnique de Grenoble, France. He is currently a faculty member of the Industrial Engineering College at the University of Tehran. Besides, he is a top-cited researcher in high-quality journals. He is also one of the leading scholars in various fields of industrial engineering who has been the editor and reviewer in various journals. His current research interests are service and manufacturing systems optimizations, stochastic process and queue theory, supply chain management and health care problems.