On Distribution of Goods Using Dynamic Programming Principles With Error Bounds

This work considers the distribution of goods from different factories to a number of ware houses (stores). Dynamic programming principle with error bounds are used under different operational policies to determine the minimum transportation cost. The minimum transportation cost of all the optimal cost of shipping goods from factories to stores was obtained as 6,300,100 Naira, and this was under the first control policy π^sup 1^. We also find that the minimum costs of the distribution of the goods with and without error bounds coincide only at infinity. We further find that at various values of β (the parameter that measures the percentage of goods loss in transit), the first policy (i.e., π^sup 1^) remains the optimal policy of all the optimal ones. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]