Modeling a Distribution Network of Deteriorating Items in Supply Chain Considering Discount Policy

One of the important issues in any supply chain is appropriate distribution of items through distribution centers (DCs). Sometimes, items with expiration date cause time constraints for distribution network. On the other hand in supply chain, usually discount policies are announced which decrease customer’s costs in high order quantities. In this paper a three echelon supply chain with a producer, several DCs and customers is studied. DCs suggest different prices for different customer’s order. First, distribution network in this type of supply chain is modeled as Integer Non Linear Programming and then two metaheuristic approaches, simulated annealing algorithm and genetic algorithm, are developed to solve model. Finally results of these algorithms with and without discount are obtained and compared.