ABSTRACT
A supply chain can be expressed as the parts that are involved, directly or indirectly, in fulŽlling a customer request (Chopra and Meindl, 2007). By this deŽnition, it can be seen that a supply chain consists of manufacturers, warehouses, retailers, transporters, and customers. The purpose of a supply chain is to maximize the value generated for the customer, namely, maximizing the difference between the Žnal product worth and the total expended by the supply chain to provide the product to the customer.
