Enhanced Manufacturing Industry Supply Chain Distribution Network through Transportation Modelling

Abstract

This paper examined the physical distribution of finished product of a soap manufacturing company, with a view to improving its outbound logistics operations. This was achieved through a mathematical modelling of the company’s product distribution. The proposed model established cheapest methods of transporting goods from various warehouses of the company to their various customers (destinations). The resulting solution using the Vogel Approximation Method (VAM), showed that the company could save about one million, nine hundred and forty thousand, and eighty naira (N1,940,080.00) only from its transportation/product distribution cost if the company could adopt the suggested shipping arrangement. On the basis of the result achieved, it is envisaged that the integration of operation research techniques (such as optimization, transportation and logistics planning, production planning) in the decision-making process of company would minimise the occurrence of surpluses and associated costs, as well as the tendency to transfer these costs to consumers. The adoption of similar measures within the manufacturing industry sector would improve the contribution of the industry to the economy of the nation.