The shortest route for transportation in supply chain by minimum spanning tree

Abstract

The aim of this article is to propose a solution for finding the shortest route for transportation between supply and demand. The problem of supplying car battery from Tehran to the centres of provinces of Iran has been investigated and a graph has been developed. Then, by using the heuristic prim algorithm, the minimum spanning tree of this graph has been obtained, and this tree has shown the shortest route for transportation. The problem has also been solved by meta-heuristic genetic algorithm, and the response has been compared with prim algorithm, and it has been shown that for big problems, the genetic algorithm can be used. In order to reduce the density of freight cars in roads, a scenario has been proposed by which, roads traffic and accidents, fuel consumption and customer delivery time can be reduced. © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.