Optimal vehicle-dispatch decisions for cement silos using a fuzzy multi-objective approach

In real dispatch problems for cement-silo trucks, input data or parameters, such as forecasting demand, resources, costs, and the objective function, are often imprecise or fuzzy because some information is incomplete, unavailable, or unobtainable. This work presents a novel fuzzy multi-objective linear programming (FMOLP) model that solves the cement-silo vehicle-dispatch problem in a fuzzy environment. This model is applied to solve multi-source, multi-product, multi-vehicle, and multi-ready-mixed-concrete (RMC) plant vehicle-dispatch problems with imprecise goals, input data, and parameters. This work elucidates the relationship between dispatch planning and RMC plants with a focus on the allocation of cement-silo trucks. This work uses a real cement study case to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed model. The main contribution of this work is its fuzzy mathematical programming methodology for solving the cement-silo vehicle-dispatch problem in a fuzzy environment. The analytical results can help dispatchers analyse systematically the cost-effectiveness of vehicle-dispatch planning in practical applications.

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