21st December 2009 4 p.m. Room 3041, Building 2, Highfield Campus
CORMSIS Seminars: The Dynamic Multi-Period Vehicle Routing Problem
Professor Gilbert Laporte
Department of Management Sciences, University of Montreal
- Web page
- http://www.cormsis.soton.ac.uk/seminar-details.php?SeminarID=2104
- Submitter
- Deborah Guy
Prof Gilbert Laporte
Abstract: In the Dynamic Multi-Period Vehicle Routing Problem, distribution orders originating at customer locations arrive dynamically at a distribution centre. Deliveries must be performed within a given time window (which may be several days). Orders are assigned to vehicles over a rolling horizon. A primary objective is to minimize the total distance traveled by the vehicles. Another objective is to balance the vehicles’ workload over time. We propose a multi-stage mixed-integer programming formulation for the problem. We also develop and compare three heuristics. Tests performed on real data provided by a distributing company based in Sweden indicate that the proposed approach yields results that outperform those obtained by the company.