Scatter search for a real-life heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem with time windows and split deliveries in Brazil

In this paper, we consider a real-life heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem with time windows and split deliveries that occurs in a major Brazilian retail group. A single depot attends 519 stores of the group distributed in 11 Brazilian states. To find good solutions to this problem, we propo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of operational research 2009-12, Vol.199 (3), p.750-758
Main Authors: Belfiore, Patrı´cia, Yoshida Yoshizaki, Hugo Tsugunobu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Comparative analysis
Distribution costs
Heterogeneous fleet
Heuristic
Motor vehicle fleets
Retail stores
Routing
Routing Scatter search Heterogeneous fleet Time windows Split deliveries
Scatter search
Split deliveries
Studies
Time windows
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Summary:In this paper, we consider a real-life heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem with time windows and split deliveries that occurs in a major Brazilian retail group. A single depot attends 519 stores of the group distributed in 11 Brazilian states. To find good solutions to this problem, we propose heuristics as initial solutions and a scatter search (SS) approach. Next, the produced solutions are compared with the routes actually covered by the company. Our results show that the total distribution cost can be reduced significantly when such methods are used. Experimental testing with benchmark instances is used to assess the merit of our proposed procedure.
ISSN:0377-2217
1872-6860
DOI:10.1016/j.ejor.2008.08.003