Solving Large Sustainable Supply Chain Networks Using Variational Inequalities

Ian Gemp, Sridhar Mahadevan, Bo Liu

Abstract: In this paper, we explore a new approach to computational sustainability based on variational inequalities (VIs). Our challenge is to compute the steady state behaviors of networks of sustainable supply chains with possibly conflicting objectives. VIs provide a way to model large networks with numerous conflicting goals. Given the size of real-world networks, suitable algorithms must be selected that can scale with the dimension of the problems. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of novel Runge-Kutta methods on finding equilibrium solutions to two real-world sustainable supply chain problems.