Abstract:

It is very important for businesses to save on logistics costs for effective supply chain management. Studies show that the effect of transportation operations on the cost of an average product is 10%-20%. Therefore, any improvement in transportation will help reduce the cost and make an important contribution to the profit of the business. The aim of this study is to minimize the transportation costs of an outsourcing provider of a food company doing foreign trade in Samsun, which is the logistics base of the Black Sea Region. In this context, a Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) model is developed. In the solution process, the heuristic Savings Algorithm is used because there is no constraint except capacity, the data is complete and there is no variable. The data is obtained from the bill of ladings formed by the company during the transportation of the products. The distribution of demands from customers is made two days a week. With the proposed solution algorithm, significant savings have been achieved in both route and transportation costs.

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