Procurement decisions regarding shrimp supplies for Thai shrimp processors

Shrimps of all sizes are obtained by direct purchasing from independent farms then sorted and sold by size. Shrimp that has not been sold is kept in cold storage, a heavy burden for shrimp processors. In this paper, a mathematical model and a heuristic model based on the dynamic programming are developed to facilitate harvesting decisions for shrimp processors. The objective function of the proposed model is to minimize the cost related to by-size inventory. The effectiveness of the heuristic model is evaluated under a combination of scenarios with various parameters. The results demonstrate that the heuristic model is quite effective and practical in solving the problem.