Joint Transportation and Inventory Strategy for Perishable Items with Weibull Distribution under Carbon Emission Regulations

This paper studies the optimal transportation and inventory strategy for perishable items under carbon cap-and-trade and carbon tax regulations. Nonlinear optimization models are constructed to maximize the total profits per unit time when the deterioration rate satisfies a two-parameter Weibull distribution and the demand rate is a linear function with respect to the current inventory level. The existence conditions of the optimal replenishment cycles under two carbon emission policies are proved. The characteristics of the optimal replenishment cycles, maximal total profits, and carbon emissions per unit time under two carbon emission policies are compared. Finally, a numerical test is provided to illustrate the theoretical results and Taguchi method is employed to analyze the sensitivity of total profits and carbon emissions per unit time with respect to the parameters of carbon emission policies, transportation time, and Weibull parameters. The results show that parameters of carbon emission regulations have greater effect on total profits per unit time, and the transportation time has the greatest effect on carbon emissions per unit time.