Research Information System
JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE OF GAZI UNIVERSITY, vol.39, no.3, pp.1894-1906, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
Vending machines have become a frequently used shopping tool in many countries, as they minimize
personnel, energy and facility costs, ability to provide 24/7 service and are easily accessible. In competitive
marketing environment, increased costs cause difficulties for vending system managers and reduce
profitability of enterprises. The aim of this study is to develop a management system for vending machines
to manage warehouse inventory and plan distribution system. The warehouse inventory is classified by using
different clustering algorithms, evaluating multiple criteria, and economic order quantity (EOQ) and safety
stock levels (SS) are suggested. For the distribution management model, various signals such as the amount
of money in vending machines, the number of products, the failure code, and healthy food data are
determined. According to the signals from the vending machines, the distribution routes of the vehicles are
computed using a linear programming model that provides the optimal solution and a heuristic model based
on the nearest neighbor algorithm. With the use of proposed vending machine magement system unnecessary
vending machine visits will be eliminated and cost savings will be achieved by reducing the travelling
distance of service vehicle. Since the service vehicle will visit the vending machines which have signal
information earlier, the lost sales due to vending machine failures and/or lack of product availability will
also be reduced. As a result, the vending machine industry's operational efficiency and profits will increase
without changing product prices, and the decision-making process's reliance on employee knowledge and
experience will be reduced