Practical solutions for a dock assignment problem with trailer transportation.

We study a distribution warehouse in which trailers need to be assigned to docks for loading or unloading. A parking lot is used as a buffer zone and transportation between the parking lot and the docks is performed by auxiliary resources called terminal tractors. Each incoming trailer has a known arrival time and each outgoing trailer a desired departure time. The primary objective is to produce a docking schedule such that the weighted sum of the number of late outgoing trailers and the tardiness of these trailers is minimized; the secondary objective is to minimize the weighted completion time of all trailers, both incoming and outgoing. The purpose of this paper is to produce high-quality solutions to large instances that are comparable to a real-life case. We implement several heuristic algorithms: truncated branch and bound, beam search and tabu search. Lagrangian relaxation is embedded in the algorithms for constructing an initial solution and for computing lower bounds. The different solution frameworks are compared via extensive computational experiments.Dock assignment; Multicriteria scheduling; Branch and bound; Beam search; Lagrangian relaxation; Tabu search;

Routing design for less-than-truckload motor carriers using ant colony techniques

One of the most important challenges for Less-Than-Truck-Load carriers consists of determining how to consolidate flows of small shipments to minimize costs while maintaining a certain level of service. For any origin-destination pair, there are several strategies to consolidate flows, but the most usual ones are: peddling/collecting routes and shipping through one or more break-bulk terminals. Therefore, the target is determining a route for each origin-destination pair that minimizes the total transportation and handling cost guaranteeing a certain level of service. Exact resolution is not viable for real size problems due to the excessive computational time required. This research studies different aspects of the problem and provides a metaheuristic algorithm (based on Ant Colonies Optimization techniques) capable of solving real problems in a reasonable computational time. The viability of the approach has been proved by means of the application of the algorithm to a real Spanish case, obtaining encouraging results

A Continuation Method for Nash Equilibria in Structured Games

Structured game representations have recently attracted interest as models for multi-agent artificial intelligence scenarios, with rational behavior most commonly characterized by Nash equilibria. This paper presents efficient, exact algorithms for computing Nash equilibria in structured game representations, including both graphical games and multi-agent influence diagrams (MAIDs). The algorithms are derived from a continuation method for normal-form and extensive-form games due to Govindan and Wilson; they follow a trajectory through a space of perturbed games and their equilibria, exploiting game structure through fast computation of the Jacobian of the payoff function. They are theoretically guaranteed to find at least one equilibrium of the game, and may find more. Our approach provides the first efficient algorithm for computing exact equilibria in graphical games with arbitrary topology, and the first algorithm to exploit fine-grained structural properties of MAIDs. Experimental results are presented demonstrating the effectiveness of the algorithms and comparing them to predecessors. The running time of the graphical game algorithm is similar to, and often better than, the running time of previous approximate algorithms. The algorithm for MAIDs can effectively solve games that are much larger than those solvable by previous methods

Distribution planning in a weather-dependent scenario with stochastic travel times: a simheuristics approach

In real-life logistics, distribution plans might be affected by weather conditions (rain, snow, and fog), since they might have a significant effect on traveling times and, therefore, on total distribution costs. In this paper, the distribution problem is modeled as a multi-depot vehicle routing problem with stochastic traveling times. These traveling times are not only stochastic in nature but the specific probability distribution used to model them depends on the particular weather conditions on the delivery day. In order to solve the aforementioned problem, a simheuristic approach combining simulation within a biased-randomized heuristic framework is proposed. As the computational experiments will show, our simulation-optimization algorithm is able to provide high-quality solutions to this NP-hard problem in short computing times even for large-scale instances. From a managerial perspective, such a tool can be very useful in practical applications since it helps to increase the efficiency of the logistics and transportation operations.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Distribution planning in a weather-dependent scenario with stochastic travel times: a simheuristics approach

In real-life logistics, distribution plans might be affected by weather conditions (rain, snow, and fog), since they might have a significant effect on traveling times and, therefore, on total distribution costs. In this paper, the distribution problem is modeled as a multi-depot vehicle routing problem with stochastic traveling times. These traveling times are not only stochastic in nature but the specific probability distribution used to model them depends on the particular weather conditions on the delivery day. In order to solve the aforementioned problem, a simheuristic approach combining simulation within a biased-randomized heuristic framework is proposed. As the computational experiments will show, our simulation-optimization algorithm is able to provide high-quality solutions to this NP-hard problem in short computing times even for large-scale instances. From a managerial perspective, such a tool can be very useful in practical applications since it helps to increase the efficiency of the logistics and transportation operations.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

ROUTING DESIGN FOR LESS-THAN-TRUCKLOAD MOTOR CARRIERS USING ANT COLONY TECHNIQUES

One of the most important challenges for Less-Than-Truck-Load carriers consists of determining how to consolidate flows of small shipments to minimize costs while maintaining a certain level of service. For any origin-destination pair, there are several strategies to consolidate flows, but the most usual ones are: peddling/collecting routes and shipping through one or more break-bulk terminals. Therefore, the target is determining a route for each origin-destination pair that minimizes the total transportation and handling cost guaranteeing a certain level of service. Exact resolution is not viable for real size problems due to the excessive computational time required. This research studies different aspects of the problem and provides a metaheuristic algorithm (based on Ant Colonies Optimization techniques) capable of solving real problems in a reasonable computational time. The viability of the approach has been proved by means of the application of the algorithm to a real Spanish case, obtaining encouraging results.

Combining statistical learning with metaheuristics for the multi-depot vehicle routing problem with market segmentation

In real-life logistics and distribution activities it is usual to face situations in which the distribution of goods has to be made from multiple warehouses or depots to the nal customers. This problem is known as the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem (MDVRP), and it typically includes two sequential and correlated stages: (a) the assignment map of customers to depots, and (b) the corresponding design of the distribution routes. Most of the existing work in the literature has focused on minimizing distance-based distribution costs while satisfying a number of capacity constraints. However, no attention has been given so far to potential variations in demands due to the tness of the customerdepot mapping in the case of heterogeneous depots. In this paper, we consider this realistic version of the problem in which the depots are heterogeneous in terms of their commercial o er and customers show di erent willingness to consume depending on how well the assigned depot ts their preferences. Thus, we assume that di erent customer-depot assignment maps will lead to di erent customer-expenditure levels. As a consequence, market-segmentation strategies need to be considered in order to increase sales and total income while accounting for the distribution costs. To solve this extension of the MDVRP, we propose a hybrid approach that combines statistical learning techniques with a metaheuristic framework. First, a set of predictive models is generated from historical data. These statistical models allow estimating the demand of any customer depending on the assigned depot. Then, the estimated expenditure of each customer is included as part of an enriched objective function as a way to better guide the stochastic local search inside the metaheuristic framework. A set of computational experiments contribute to illustrate our approach and how the extended MDVRP considered here diré in terms of the proposed solutions from the traditional one.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Models and Algorithms for Inbound and Outbound Truck to Door Scheduling

Cross-docking is a logistic strategy that facilitates rapid movement of consolidated products between suppliers and retailers within a supply chain. It is also a warehousing strategy that aims at reducing or eliminating storage and order picking, two of which are known to be major costly operations of any typical warehouse. This strategy has been used in the retailing, manufacturing, and automotive industries. In a cross-dock, goods are unloaded from incoming trucks, consolidated according to their destinations, and then, loaded into outgoing trucks with little or no storage in between. In this thesis, we address an integrated cross-dock door assignment and truck scheduling problem in which the assignment and sequencing of incoming trucks to strip doors and outgoing trucks to stack doors is optimized to minimize the total time to process all trucks. We present a mixed integer programming formulation to model this problem and some valid inequalities to strengthen the formulation. We also present two metaheuristics to obtain high quality solutions in reasonable CPU times. These algorithms use a mix of composite dispatching rules, constructive heuristics, local search heuristics which are embedded into a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP) and an iterated local search (ILS). Results of computational experiments are presented to assess the performance of the proposed algorithms, in comparison with a general purpose solver