Study of Two Cases of Green Transport Taking Into Account Maintenance Costs

International audienceThis paper study a supply chain system composed of a machine, a purchase warehouse, a vehicle and customers that demand a random quantity of products. We assume that the customers are located in urban areas and the demands are delivered by a green vehicle. Two cases of green transport are considered: in the first case the transport is ensured by an electric vehicle and the second case by a photovoltaic vehicle. The objective of this paper is to provide a performance evaluation system that allows choosing the suitable case according to the indicators of interest such as transport costs or the maintenance costs of vehicle. To describe both cases, a discrete flow model is adopted that takes into account the machine and vehicle failures, the quantity to deliver and the vehicle maintenance actions. Both cases of the green vehicle are simulated and the total cost of the supply chain of each case is determined. Numerical results are presented to discuss the choice of the suitable case. Also an optimization study of the supply chain system in the second case is presented