Algorithm to Minimize Number of Shipments from Multiple Warehouses

Question

I have 10 warehouses across the US. Each of them may or may not have product A, B, C, D, E in stock. Someone orders all five items from my website.

I want to minimize th

Answer 1

Here is my psudeocode that does not take into account that the search depth could be more than 1, but I believe the basic algorithm is sound.

   ItemList = (A,B,C,D,E,F)
//Iterate until all items have been scheduled  
    do while length of Itemlist > 0
    {
    var1=0;
    Warehouse="";

//Search all the warehouses to find which has the most items in the list
    For w = 1 to 10
    {
    val2 = function[select no of items available from Itemlist](ItemList,w);
    if var2 > var1 then
    {var1=var2;
    Warehouse=w;}
    }

//Return a list of the items available from the warehouse with the most items available
    DBrecordset = function[select no of items available from Itemlist](ItemList,Warehouse);
//schedule them
    Output to file (Warehouse + DB recordset contents)
//remove the scheduled items from the list
    function [Remove items from ItemList](ItemList,DBRecordset) 

    }