The current global economic crisis and the growing common concern over environmental issues are pushing companies to look for the minimisation of both cost and environmental impact of their operations along the whole supply chain. In recent years, one of the most interesting challenges is the development of effective methods and approaches able to support companies in defining strategies and actions suitable to meet multiple strategic purposes. Aim of this paper is to present a decision support system designed for assisting companies in design and management of their supply chain network. This tool is based on a multi-objective optimisation model for the integrated design of a fresh food supply network under the main aim of the minimisation of both network global cost and environmental impact. A Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model computes economic costs and environmental impact drivers for a multi-product, multi-layer, multi-period capacitated location-allocation optimisation problem. Problem variables deal with strategic and tactical decisions e.g. facility location, route assignment and packaging type selection. The model considers two different objective functions. The former is aimed at the minimisation of economic costs related to supply chain activities, e.g. production, shipment, storage, end-of life treatment. The latter objective function considers the same activities but deals with the minimisation of their global environmental impact along the supply chain. A set of feasibility constraints complete the proposed model to guarantee the solution applicability. Demand satisfaction, production and distribution capacity limits are included into the model. Finally, an application of the proposed model on a realistic food supply chain network is proposed. Output of model application is the definition of the Pareto frontier of optimal solutions, which can be used as support to the supply chain decision-maker. Results highlight the existence of a trade-off between economic and environmental costs in supply chain management.
Multi-objective optimisation modelling for Green Supply Chain Management
MORA, CRISTINA;FERRARI, EMILIO
2014
Abstract
The current global economic crisis and the growing common concern over environmental issues are pushing companies to look for the minimisation of both cost and environmental impact of their operations along the whole supply chain. In recent years, one of the most interesting challenges is the development of effective methods and approaches able to support companies in defining strategies and actions suitable to meet multiple strategic purposes. Aim of this paper is to present a decision support system designed for assisting companies in design and management of their supply chain network. This tool is based on a multi-objective optimisation model for the integrated design of a fresh food supply network under the main aim of the minimisation of both network global cost and environmental impact. A Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model computes economic costs and environmental impact drivers for a multi-product, multi-layer, multi-period capacitated location-allocation optimisation problem. Problem variables deal with strategic and tactical decisions e.g. facility location, route assignment and packaging type selection. The model considers two different objective functions. The former is aimed at the minimisation of economic costs related to supply chain activities, e.g. production, shipment, storage, end-of life treatment. The latter objective function considers the same activities but deals with the minimisation of their global environmental impact along the supply chain. A set of feasibility constraints complete the proposed model to guarantee the solution applicability. Demand satisfaction, production and distribution capacity limits are included into the model. Finally, an application of the proposed model on a realistic food supply chain network is proposed. Output of model application is the definition of the Pareto frontier of optimal solutions, which can be used as support to the supply chain decision-maker. Results highlight the existence of a trade-off between economic and environmental costs in supply chain management.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
