| This dissertation focuses on a practical production problem in which a perishable product must be produced and distributed at minimum cost. The problem has some features of the integrated production and distribution scheduling problem in that we seek to determine the fleet size and their routes subject to a planning horizon constraint but there are significant differences as well. In particular, this research differs because the product has a limited lifetime, the total demand must be satisfied within a planning horizon, multiple trucks can be used, and the production schedule and the distribution sequence are considered. Two mixed integer programming models are formulated to solve the single plant and two-plant problems and, then, heuristics based on evolutionary algorithms are provided to resolve the models in a reasonable time. |
