Optimization of Vehicle Routing Problem with Load Balancing and Time Windows in Distribution

Vehicle route scheduling is an important activity in supply chain management. It is virtually a kind of vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW). An improved model of VRPTW with load balancing was built up. It aims to achieve minimum vehicles, the shortest distribution distance, load balancing and customer's time demand. The algorithm was designed to two-stage. The first Stage was used to find the vehicle route schedule through particle swarm optimization. An improved inertial coefficient was considered to enhance the search speed. The second Stage was implemented for load balancing. The optimal or sub-optimal solution can be found efficiently through the proposed model for medium size vehicle routing problem.

[1]  Li Ning.  Particle Swarm Optimization for Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows , 2004 .

[2]  Mohamed Barkaoui,et al.  A parallel hybrid genetic algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows , 2004, Comput. Oper. Res..

[3]  Billy E. Gillett,et al.  A Heuristic Algorithm for the Vehicle-Dispatch Problem , 1974, Oper. Res..

[4]  M. R. Rao,et al.  Combinatorial Optimization , 1992, NATO ASI Series.

[5]  Richard F. Hartl,et al.  An improved Ant System algorithm for theVehicle Routing Problem , 1999, Ann. Oper. Res..

[6]  B. Wu,et al.  Particle Swarm Optimization for Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows , 2004 .

[7]  G. Clarke,et al.  Scheduling of Vehicles from a Central Depot to a Number of Delivery Points , 1964 .

[8]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[9]  Cao Rui.  Improved Genetic Algorithm for Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows , 2002 .

[10]  E. L. Ulungu,et al.  Multi‐objective combinatorial optimization problems: A survey , 1994 .

[11]  Marshall L. Fisher,et al.  A generalized assignment heuristic for vehicle routing , 1981, Networks.

[12]  Imtiaz Ahmad,et al.  Particle swarm optimization for task assignment problem , 2002, Microprocess. Microsystems.

[13]  I-Ming Chao,et al.  A tabu search method for the truck and trailer routing problem , 2002, Comput. Oper. Res..

[14]  George B. Dantzig,et al.  The Truck Dispatching Problem , 1959 .

[15]  Wenjun Wang.  Improved Genetic Algorithm for Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows , 2010, 2010 International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Cognitive Informatics.