Author(s)

Sampson T. Appiah, Dominic Otoo, Bernard A. Adjei

Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani, Ghana.

Determining the type of vehicles to transport goods between multiple factories and numerous distributors with different demands is one of the major logistic decisions that have to be made by industry players to reduce the cost of operations. A Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programming (MIQP) model was used to optimally distribute goods to 105 distributors from two factories across Ghana. The formulated model and analysis show that the existence of multiple vehicles in a fleet purposely for long hauling of goods also renders an optimal minimum cost as compared to a single-vehicle fleet. This optimum minimum cost accounts for 0.2066 of the total cost incurred by the two factories. This resulted in a 25% reduction in transportation cost. Again, a single-vehicle fleet with loading capacity within the mean value of all individual demands gave a minimum cost next to the optimal minimum.

Mixed-Integer, Quadratic, Multi-Vehicle, Transportation, Multi-Factory

Appiah, S. , Otoo, D. and Adjei, B. (2020) A Multi-Vehicle, Multi-Factory Assignment Problem: A Case of Coca-Cola Bottling Company at Ahinsan and Spintex-Ghana. American Journal of Operations Research, 10, 163-172. doi: 10.4236/ajor.2020.105012.