Integrated Optimization of Facility Location, Inventory Control, Fleet and Routing in the Supply Chain of Perishable Products using an Optimization Approach based on Hybrid Simulation

The supply chain of perishable products has high complexity due to the short lifespan of the products. For this reason, it is necessary to evaluate various issues in the supply chain such as location, inventory and logistics in an integrated manner by using flexible tools. The purpose of this research is to present an optimization approach based on event-factor-based discrete hybrid simulation for the integrated optimization of facility location, inventory control, fleet composition and routing in the supply chain of perishable products.The optimization process is performed using meta-heuristic algorithms. In order to conduct a case study, the supply chain of one of the largest producers of dairy products in the country has been considered, and due to the high demand and production of ice cream, this product has been considered as a perishable product of the supply chain. The results show that the integrated optimization of the research topic leads to a significant improvement in product waste, reducing the time of processing and delivering orders, and reducing the number of fleets.