Proceedings of the 2011 Industrial Engineering Research Conference
T. Doolen and E. Van Aken, eds.
Integrated Production and Distribution Schedule Problem with a
Perishable Product
Wennian Li and William G. Ferrell
Department of Industry Engineering, Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-0920
Abstract
The integrated production and distribution scheduling problem (IPDSP) is the generic name that has been attached
to a class of make to order production problems in which the objective is to optimally coordinate the production
scheduling and transportation routing problem so that costs are minimized. A unique feature of this research is that
the product is perishable; that is, products are assumed to be produced in batches and from the moment a batch is
completed, there is a finite amount of time during which the product can be delivered to the customer. The objective
is to determine the production scheduling and transportation routing (number of vehicles and routes for each) to
satisfy a set of known customers demand distributed over a geographic region to minimize the total transportation
cost. An integer programming model had been developed that includes the following practical assumptions: 1) there
is a time horizon within which all demands must be satisfied, 2) several types of delivery vehicles are available to be
used each with a unique capacity and cost, 3) vehicles may make multiple stops on a single trip and may make
multiple trips within the time horizon. Small numerical examples are included that can be solved exactly.