A Genetic Algorithm for the Home-Delivered Meals Location-Routing Problem

Home-Delivered Meals provision is a volunteer-staffed activity for which little strategic planning is performed. We present and evaluate a Genetic Algorithm to solve the Home Delivered Meals Location-Routing Problem. This planning model addresses facility location, allocation of demand to facilities, and design of delivery routes, while balancing efficiency and effectiveness considerations. Computational results on benchmark Location-Routing Problem instances for the single objective version of the problem indicate improvements over some current methods. The case study presented on a larger data set shows how trade-off curves, which are very useful for decision making, can be obtained by the method developed.

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