Dynamic fleet management as a logistics queueing network

This paper introduces a new framework for modeling and solving dynamic fleet management problems, which we call the Logistics Queueing Network (LQN). A variety of problems in logistics involve the combined problem of moving freight from origin to destination while simultaneously managing the capacity required to move this freight. Standard formulations for real-world problems usually lead to intractably large linear programs. The LQN approach can take into account more real-world detail and is considerably faster than classical LP formulations. The solutions generated using the LQN approach are shown to be within a few percentage points of the LP optimal solutions depending on the size of the capacity fleets.

[1]  Warren B. Powell,et al.  A COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF ALTERNATIVE ALGORITHMS FOR THE DYNAMIC VEHICLE ALLOCATION PROBLEM , 1988 .

[2]  Roger J.-B. Wets,et al.  Stochastic programming, an Introduction , 1988 .

[3]  Warren B. Powell,et al.  Stochastic and dynamic networks and routing , 1995 .

[4]  T L Magnanti,et al.  TRANSPORTATION NETWORK ANALYSIS AND DECOMPOSITION METHODS , 1978 .

[5]  Yuri Ermoliev,et al.  Stochastic quasigradient methods. Numerical techniques for stochastic optimization , 1988 .

[6]  Jacques Desrosiers,et al.  Time Constrained Routing and Scheduling , 1992 .

[7]  Linos F. Frantzeskakis,et al.  A Successive Linear Approximation Procedure for Stochastic, Dynamic Vehicle Allocation Problems , 1990, Transp. Sci..

[8]  Kenneth Ching-Kang Chih.  A real time dynamic optimal freight car management simulation of the multiple railroad, multiple commodity temporal spatial network flow problem , 1986 .

[9]  Warren B. Powell,et al.  An Algorithm for Multistage Dynamic Networks with Random Arc Capacities, with an Application to Dynamic Fleet Management , 1996, Oper. Res..

[10]  Warren B. Powell,et al.  A Stochastic Formulation of the Dynamic Assignment Problem, with an Application to Truckload Motor Carriers , 1996, Transp. Sci..

[11]  Warren B. Powell,et al.  Multicommodity network flows: The impact of formulation on decomposition , 1993, Math. Program..

[12]  A. M. Gupal,et al.  A stochastic method of linearization , 1972 .

[13]  William C. Jordan,et al.  A STOCHASTIC, DYNAMIC NETWORK MODEL FOR RAILROAD CAR DISTRIBUTION , 1983 .

[14]  William W. White,et al.  Dynamic transshipment networks: An algorithm and its application to the distribution of empty containers , 1972, Networks.