Optimal Transport Planning for the Supply to a Fruit Logistic Centre

This chapter presents a mixed integer linear programming developed to support operational decision making in the transport planning for a fruit logistic centre (FLC). The FLC is part of a fruit supply chain. Associated cooperatives store and supply fruits on demand to fulfil orders received at the logistic centre. The model mitigates the cost of manually managing the planning of trips to transfer fruits from storages at cooperatives to the logistic centre and avoiding idle times in the packaging lines. This is done determining the number of trips to do by available trucks and the load they have to carry to the logistic centre. The model is tested on a real case represented by an important Spanish cooperative during the winter season as a prior test to the more complex. In view of results, the model is ready to be integrated into the ERP of the logistic centre and extended to deal with the more complex case presented during harvest season.