An extended state task network formulation for integrated production-distribution planning in supply chain

In this paper we consider a complex supply chain system where facilities produce intermediate-items or end-items that are shipped to other facilities or customers. We consider a complicated production process that can be convergent, divergent and circulatory. In order to facilitate modeling and solving the integrated production-distribution planning problem in the supply chain, extended state task network (ESTN) was proposed. ESTN adds the virtual proportion transformation task and combination transfer task into a state task network to describe the transportation process in the combination material transportation pattern. An improved path relinking algorithm was developed to solve the problem. Two strategies are proposed in the improved path relinking algorithm. The first strategy is the solution update method of the reference set based on solution quality and diversity. The second is the decentralization mutation strategy of the reference set. The experimental results demonstrate that the improved path relinking algorithm can obtain better solutions than the genetic algorithm, the tabu search procedure and the original path relinking algorithm. In the experiment we also observed that the diversity of the reference set has great impact on solution quality.