In order to satisfy the material supply needs of large scale shop-floors and
production systems, various logistics solutions are applied. In lean
manufacturing enterprises, the material supply is pulled by the demands of
manufacturing/assembly processes; therefore, a milkrun service is often
applied to support the production without glitches. The milkrun logistics
planning is a special case for vehicle routing problem (VRP), and requires
effective approach to solution in order to satisfy various constraints, and
minimize the cost of service. This study gives an overview about lean
logistics as well as the most efficient VRP solver algorithms. Furthermore, a
novel initial solution with generation heuristics is proposed, which is
specially focused on flexible milkrun planning. In order to demonstrate the
capabilities of the solution, a software environment is developed as a
demonstration that focuses on the main industrial requirements of logistics
planning like effective layout definition, quick response of the delivery
service and effective order handling
