Minimization of Product Transportation and Temporary Storage Costs for Home Appliances Manufacturing Factories

In home appliances manufacturing factories, the cycle time of a certain type of products is deterministic such that the daily outputs of such products are fixed. If the completed products are not delivered out of the factory in time, the warehouse in the factory cannot hold all completed products since its capacity is limited. This work focuses on a factory for which the completed products should be delivered out of the factory to a warehouse at a harbor for temporary storage and then shipped abroad. This results in a cost for the product transportation from the warehouse in the factory to the one at the harbor as well as a storage cost for the warehouse at the harbor. This work aims at finding out a schedule for product transportation with the objective of minimizing the total cost. To do so, a periodical scheduling method is proposed for the product transportation. Based on the scheduling method, a mathematical programming model is established to minimize the total cost for the product transportation. Finally, an actual case study is given to show the applicability of the proposed method.