Abstract
This work develops a mathematical model for a Multistage Supply Chain Network (MSCN) with a fixed charge for each route and proposes novel solution procedure based on Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO). The MSCN problem involves selection of facilities to open, and the distribution network design must satisfy demand at minimum cost. The problem becomes Nondeterministic Polynomial-time (NP) hard while considering fixed charges. The novel idea in this work is the adoption of fixed charges for each production flow between stages. Numerical results are presented and compared with approximate and lower bound values to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.