Integration of Transshipment in the Transportation Coordination of Fertilizer from Manufacturer to Consumers in a Supply Chain System (Published)
In Nigeria, fertilizer distribution has been fraught with deceit, inconsistencies and inefficiencies. This paper integrates transshipment in the transportation coordination of subsidized fertilizer from the manufacturer to the consumers in a supply chain system. It demonstrates that problems of this nature can be modelled in Excel and analyzed using the simplex option in Solver. The result of the analysis shows that appreciable transportation cost savings can be made by adopting the model presented in this paper. The actual cost of transporting 74800 bags of subsidized fertilizer from the manufacturer in Port Harcourt Nigeria to the redemption centres in Gombe State, Nigeria is ₦21,925,800.00. Using the transshipment model, the cost reduced to ₦ 21,368,400.00. The restriction on the number of bags of fertilizer to be deposited at the warehouses, at a fixed transportation cost, was easily accommodated due to the flexibility of modelling transshipment problems in Excel. The Excel output shows clearly the flow of the product from the manufacturer and the warehouses to the redemption centres.
Keywords: Excel Solver, Fertilizer, Simplex, Supply Chain, Transportation, Transshipment