Feed Logistics Management for a Vertically Integrated Swine Company

In this paper, the logistic problem from an animal feed industry to a cluster of pig farms is studied. In the swine production, the feed demand is dynamic and uncertain. Pigs in different growth stage require different feed types. Also, the feed quantity required in each growth stage is also varied depending on the animal health and environment conditions. Likewise, a planer needs to consider other constraints such as the full truckload, the minimum ordering batch of a feed mill. Taking these factors into account, the feed logistic problem is complicated. To solve this problem, the collaborative between farms, delivery trucks and feed industry is necessary. The production lot size of feed industry, the order quantity of each farm in the cluster and the transportation plan must be integrated. In this paper, an algorithm based on the mathematical model is developed. The objective function of the model is to minimize the logistic cost which is the combination of transportation and inventory costs. The developed model has been tested with a practical sample from a large swine industry in Thailand. The result showed that the method provides a practical solution which could be applied to the industry.