Presenting and Solving a Three-layer Supply Chain Model to Maximize Quality and Minimize the Estimated Delivery Time

Today, the supply chain and evaluating its costs are of great significance. The number of layers of the supply chain and the structure of the interactions between these layers can play an important role in achieving the optimal performance of the supply chain. Besides, it is undeniable that service provision and product transportation from a chain layer to the next one do not take the same amount of time because due to different reasons such as transportation challenges, there would always be the possibility that transportation doesn’t go as planned. Therefore, by proposing a multi-purpose model, this study seeks to maximize the profit and the quality of the products transported through the supply chain, as well as minimizing the total delivery time. After presenting the model, it is solved by applying deterministic algorithms using GAMS software, and also NSGAII and MOIWO non-deterministic meta-heuristic algorithms using proper software. Then, these two solutions are compared with each other. Results indicate that MOIWO meta-heuristic algorithm is superior to NSGAII in all indicators except for the NPS indicator.