A genetic algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows

The objective of the vehicle routing problem (VRP) is to deliver a set of customers with known demands on minimum-cost vehicle routes originating and terminating at the same depot. A vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) requires the delivery be made within a speci¯c time frame given by the customers. Prins (2004) recently proposed a simple and e®ective genetic algorithm (GA) for VRP. In terms of average solution cost, it outperforms most published tabu search results. We implement this hybrid GA to handle VRPTW. Both the implementation and computational results will be discussed

The Multi Trip Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Release Dates

International audienceIn this paper the Multi Trip Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Release Dates is introduced. The problem is particularly interesting in the City Logistics context, where trucks deliver merchandise to depots located in the outskirts of the city. Goods continuously arrive during the day becoming available for final distribution after the working day has started. This introduces the concept of release dates associated with merchandise. In this paper, a set of instances is introduced and a hybrid genetic algorithm is proposed to solve the problem

A Hybrid Multi-objective Genetic Algorithm for Bi-objective Time Window Assignment Vehicle Routing Problem

Providing a satisfying delivery service is an important way to maintain the customers’ loyalty and further expand profits for manufacturers and logistics providers. Considering customers’ preferences for time windows, a bi-objective time window assignment vehicle routing problem has been introduced to maximize the total customers’ satisfaction level for assigned time windows and minimize the expected delivery cost. The paper designs a hybrid multi-objective genetic algorithm for the problem that incorporates modified stochastic nearest neighbour and insertion-based local search. Computational results show the positive effect of the hybridization and satisfactory performance of the metaheuristics. Moreover, the impacts of three characteristics are analysed including customer distribution, the number of preferred time windows per customer and customers’ preference type for time windows. Finally, one of its extended problems, the bi-objective time window assignment vehicle routing problem with time-dependent travel times has been primarily studied.</p

A new VRPPD model and a hybrid heuristic solution approach for e-tailing

We analyze a business model for e-supermarkets to enable multi-product sourcing capacity through co-opetition (collaborative competition). The logistics aspect of our approach is to design and execute a network system where “premium” goods are acquired from vendors at multiple locations in the supply network and delivered to customers. Our specific goals are to: (i) investigate the role of premium product offerings in creating critical mass and profit; (ii) develop a model for the multiple-pickup single-delivery vehicle routing problem in the presence of multiple vendors; and (iii) propose a hybrid solution approach. To solve the problem introduced in this paper, we develop a hybrid metaheuristic approach that uses a Genetic Algorithm for vendor selection and allocation, and a modified savings algorithm for the capacitated VRP with multiple pickup, single delivery and time windows (CVRPMPDTW). The proposed Genetic Algorithm guides the search for optimal vendor pickup location decisions, and for each generated solution in the genetic population, a corresponding CVRPMPDTW is solved using the savings algorithm. We validate our solution approach against published VRPTW solutions and also test our algorithm with Solomon instances modified for CVRPMPDTW

A Column Generation for the Heterogeneous Fixed Fleet Open Vehicle Routing Problem

[EN] This paper addressed the heterogeneous fixed fleet open vehicle routing problem (HFFOVRP), in which the vehicles are not required to return to the depot after completing a service. In this new problem, the demands of customers are fulfilled by a heterogeneous fixed fleet of vehicles having various capacities, fixed costs and variable costs. This problem is an important variant of the open vehicle routing problem (OVRP) and can cover more practical situations in transportation and logistics. Since this problem belongs to NP-hard Problems, An approach based on column generation (CG) is applied to solve the HFFOVRP. A tight integer programming model is presented and the linear programming relaxation of which is solved by the CG technique. Since there have been no existing benchmarks, this study generated 19 test problems and the results of the proposed CG algorithm is compared to the results of exact algorithm. Computational experience confirms that the proposed algorithm can provide better solutions within a comparatively shorter period of time.Yousefikhoshbakht, M.; Dolatnejad, A. (2017). A Column Generation for the Heterogeneous Fixed Fleet Open Vehicle Routing Problem. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering. 5(2):55-71. doi:10.4995/ijpme.2017.5916SWORD557152Aleman, R. E., & Hill, R. R. (2010). A tabu search with vocabulary building approach for the vehicle routing problem with split demands. International Journal of Metaheuristics, 1(1), 55. doi:10.1504/ijmheur.2010.033123Anbuudayasankar, S. P., Ganesh, K., Lenny Koh, S. C., & Ducq, Y. (2012). Modified savings heuristics and genetic algorithm for bi-objective vehicle routing problem with forced backhauls. Expert Systems with Applications, 39(3), 2296-2305. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2011.08.009Brandão, J. (2009). A deterministic tabu search algorithm for the fleet size and mix vehicle routing problem. European Journal of Operational Research, 195(3), 716-728. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2007.05.059Çatay, B. (2010). A new saving-based ant algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Simultaneous Pickup and Delivery. Expert Systems with Applications, 37(10), 6809-6817. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2010.03.045Dantzig, G. B., & Ramser, J. H. (1959). The Truck Dispatching Problem. Management Science, 6(1), 80-91. doi:10.1287/mnsc.6.1.80Gendreau, M., Guertin, F., Potvin, J.-Y., & Séguin, R. (2006). Neighborhood search heuristics for a dynamic vehicle dispatching problem with pick-ups and deliveries. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 14(3), 157-174. doi:10.1016/j.trc.2006.03.002Gendreau, M., Laporte, G., Musaraganyi, C., & Taillard, É. D. (1999). A tabu search heuristic for the heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem. Computers & Operations Research, 26(12), 1153-1173. doi:10.1016/s0305-0548(98)00100-2Lei, H., Laporte, G., & Guo, B. (2011). The capacitated vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands and time windows. Computers & Operations Research, 38(12), 1775-1783. doi:10.1016/j.cor.2011.02.007Li, X., Leung, S. C. H., & Tian, P. (2012). A multistart adaptive memory-based tabu search algorithm for the heterogeneous fixed fleet open vehicle routing problem. Expert Systems with Applications, 39(1), 365-374. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2011.07.025Li, X., Tian, P., & Aneja, Y. P. (2010). An adaptive memory programming metaheuristic for the heterogeneous fixed fleet vehicle routing problem. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 46(6), 1111-1127. doi:10.1016/j.tre.2010.02.004Penna, P. H. V., Subramanian, A., & Ochi, L. S. (2011). An Iterated Local Search heuristic for the Heterogeneous Fleet Vehicle Routing Problem. Journal of Heuristics, 19(2), 201-232. doi:10.1007/s10732-011-9186-ySaadati Eskandari, Z., YousefiKhoshbakht, M. (2012). Solving the Vehicle Routing Problem by an Effective Reactive Bone Route Algorithm, Transportation Research Journal, 1(2), 51-69.Subramanian, A., Drummond, L. M. A., Bentes, C., Ochi, L. S., & Farias, R. (2010). A parallel heuristic for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Simultaneous Pickup and Delivery. Computers & Operations Research, 37(11), 1899-1911. doi:10.1016/j.cor.2009.10.011Syslo, M., Deo, N., Kowalik, J. (1983). Discrete Optimization Algorithms with Pascal Programs, Prentice Hall.Taillard, E. D. (1999). A heuristic column generation method for the heterogeneous fleet VRP, RAIRO Operations Research, 33, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1051/ro:1999101Tarantilis, C. D., & Kiranoudis, C. T. (2007). A flexible adaptive memory-based algorithm for real-life transportation operations: Two case studies from dairy and construction sector. European Journal of Operational Research, 179(3), 806-822. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2005.03.059Wang, H.-F., & Chen, Y.-Y. (2012). A genetic algorithm for the simultaneous delivery and pickup problems with time window. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 62(1), 84-95. doi:10.1016/j.cie.2011.08.018Yousefikhoshbakht, M., Didehvar, F., & Rahmati, F. (2013). Solving the heterogeneous fixed fleet open vehicle routing problem by a combined metaheuristic algorithm. International Journal of Production Research, 52(9), 2565-2575. doi:10.1080/00207543.2013.855337Yousefikhoshbakht, M., & Khorram, E. (2012). Solving the vehicle routing problem by a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm. Journal of Industrial Engineering International, 8(1). doi:10.1186/2251-712x-8-1

Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for Multi-Period Vehicle Routing Problem with Mixed Pickup and Delivery with Time Window, Heterogeneous Fleet, Duration Time and Rest Area

Most logistics industries are improving their technology and innovation in competitive markets in order to serve the various needs of customers more efficiently. However, logistics management costs are one of the factors that entrepreneurs inevitably need to reduce, so that goods and services are distributed to a number of customers in different locations effectively and efficiently. In this research, we consider the multi-period vehicle routing problem with mixed pickup and delivery with time windows, heterogeneous fleet, duration time and rest area (MVRPMPDDR). In the special case that occurs in this research, it is the rest area for resting the vehicle after working long hours of the day during transportation over multiple periods, for which with confidence no research has studied previously. We present a mixed integer linear programming model to give an optimal solution, and a meta-heuristic approach using a hybrid genetic algorithm with variable neighborhood search algorithm (GAVNS) has been developed to solve large-sized problems. The objective is to maximize profits obtained from revenue after deducting fuel cost, the cost of using a vehicle, driver wage cost, penalty cost and overtime cost. We prepared two algorithms, including a genetic algorithm (GA) and variable neighborhood search algorithm (VNS), to compare the performance of our proposed algorithm. The VNS is specially applied instead of the mutation operator in GA, because it can reduce duplicate solutions of the algorithms that increase the difficulty and are time-consuming. The numerical results show the hybrid genetic algorithm with variable neighborhood search algorithm outperforms all other proposed algorithms. This demonstrates that the proposed meta-heuristic is efficient, with reasonable computational time, and is useful not only for increasing profits, but also for efficient management of the outbound transportation logistics system

A Computational Study of Genetic Crossover Operators for Multi-Objective Vehicle Routing Problem with Soft Time Windows

The article describes an investigation of the effectiveness of genetic algorithms for multi-objective combinatorial optimization (MOCO) by presenting an application for the vehicle routing problem with soft time windows. The work is motivated by the question, if and how the problem structure influences the effectiveness of different configurations of the genetic algorithm. Computational results are presented for different classes of vehicle routing problems, varying in their coverage with time windows, time window size, distribution and number of customers. The results are compared with a simple, but effective local search approach for multi-objective combinatorial optimization problems

Industrial and Tramp Ship Routing Problems: Closing the Gap for Real-Scale Instances

Recent studies in maritime logistics have introduced a general ship routing problem and a benchmark suite based on real shipping segments, considering pickups and deliveries, cargo selection, ship-dependent starting locations, travel times and costs, time windows, and incompatibility constraints, among other features. Together, these characteristics pose considerable challenges for exact and heuristic methods, and some cases with as few as 18 cargoes remain unsolved. To face this challenge, we propose an exact branch-and-price (B&P) algorithm and a hybrid metaheuristic. Our exact method generates elementary routes, but exploits decremental state-space relaxation to speed up column generation, heuristic strong branching, as well as advanced preprocessing and route enumeration techniques. Our metaheuristic is a sophisticated extension of the unified hybrid genetic search. It exploits a set-partitioning phase and uses problem-tailored variation operators to efficiently handle all the problem characteristics. As shown in our experimental analyses, the B&P optimally solves 239/240 existing instances within one hour. Scalability experiments on even larger problems demonstrate that it can optimally solve problems with around 60 ships and 200 cargoes (i.e., 400 pickup and delivery services) and find optimality gaps below 1.04% on the largest cases with up to 260 cargoes. The hybrid metaheuristic outperforms all previous heuristics and produces near-optimal solutions within minutes. These results are noteworthy, since these instances are comparable in size with the largest problems routinely solved by shipping companies