Developing an optimal solution for meat transporting network among production, cold storage, and consumption points of Fars province, Iran

Meat cold storages of Fars province including Lar, Shiraz, Marvdasht, and Kazeroun are supported by Eqlid, Shiraz, Tehran, Kazeroun, and Marvdasht districts and their commodities is distributed in Lar, Jahrom, Marvdasht, Shiraz, Fasa, Kazeroun, and Darab lingo 0 software were used to obtain optimal pattern of meat transportation network. In current pattern, the total cost of transportation through two transporting networks equals to 8 million rials, while in optimal solution it reduced to 940. million rials, i.e., using the optimal solution can result in a saving of 0.4 percent. Transportation paths to Kazeroun to Shiraz, Kazeroun to Lar, and Kazeroun to Fasa couldn’t get a priority to contribute to transportation, thus two nearly optimal solutions, considering a 5% deviation (incrementin cost) from optimal point, were developed. Nearly optimal solutions were obtained by some changes occurred in transportation path from production to storage points. The first nearly optimal solution was obtained by change in the transportation paths of Kazeroun and Lar storages and the second one was obtained by change in the transportation path to Shiraz and Kazeroun storages.