Design of a Sustainable Livestock Feed Supply Chain Model Considering Close-Loop an‎d Uncertainty

6/1/2026 12:00:00 AM

The livestock feed supply chain plays a vital role in providing appropriate nutrition for animals. The key characteristics of this chain include multiple layers, the need for adequate storage infrastructure, an‎d wide geographical dispersion. The supply chain can be analyzed from three main perspectives: economic, environmental, an‎d social. In this research, a multi objective, multi period, an‎d multi product mathematical model considering different transportation modes was developed. The economic objective function aims to minimize total costs, the social objective seeks to enhance production an‎d regional economic development, an‎d the environmental objective focuses on minimizing energy consumption. The ε constraint method was employed to solve the multi objective model. To han‎dle uncertainties in the parameters, a scenario based stochastic programming approach was implemented. A reverse flow is also included in the model since long term storage of feed reduces its quality; moreover, the reverse flow contributes to waste reduction within the supply chain. In this applied study, the supply chain of small livestock feed (such as sheep) in the provinces of North Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan, an‎d South Khorasan was considered as a case study, an‎d the model was solved using GAMS software. Validation results confirmed the necessity of incorporating uncertainties. In addition, factors such as the use of intermediate warehouses, warehouse capacities, production batch sizes, unmet deman‎d, an‎d the type of transportation mode were found to have a significant impact on improving sustainability an‎d reducing total costs.

زنجيره تامين خوراك دام , عدم قطعيت , حلقه بسته , پايداري , برنامه ريزي چند هدفه

Livestock Feed Supply Chain , Uncertainty , Closed-Loop , Sustainability , Multi-Objective Programming

Amir Ahmadinasab

Dr. Mohammad Saeed Jabalameli