Many distribution companies service their customers with non homogeneous fleets of trucks. Their problem is to find a set of routes minimising the number of travelled kilometres and the number of used vehicles, while satisfying customer demand. There are three major problems why traditional Operations Research techniques are not enough to deal with this problem, which is known as the Vehicle Routing Problem. First of all, it is inherently combinatorial, and exact algorithms fail when the dimension of the problem (number of customers and orders) reaches a reasonable size. Secondly, the problem can be extended and made more complex in many ways, for instance, adding more than one depot, considering more than one vehicle type, accounting for stochastic customer demand (the exact requested quantity is known only at delivery time), considering time windows during which the customers must be served, taking into account vehicle accessibility restrictions (some customers cannot be served by some vehicles). Finally, the problem can become very different when we consider on-line distribution, that is, we accept delivery orders for lorries which are en route. There, geolocation of customers and vehicles, online data transfer among lorries and the base station, have an impact as great as the solution strategy. In this paper we present DyvOil and AntRoute, two software tools which assist the tour planner during the different stages of goods distribution, from pre-planning on the basis of reorder forecasts, to online planning, through offline planning based on an advanced metaheuristic such as Ant Colony System. We also describe the case of Pina Petroli, a fuel oil distribution company located in Canton Ticino, Switzerland, which operates a fleet of 12 vehicles and serves customers using DyvOil and Migros, the largest Swiss supermarket chain, which uses AntRoute operates daily a fleet of hundreds of trucks distributing goods to its shops.
Ant colony optimization for vehicle routing in advanced logistics systems / Gambardella Luca, Maria; Rizzoli Andrea, E; Oliverio, Fabrizio; Casagrande, Norman; Donati, Alberto; Montemanni, Roberto; Lucibello, Enzo. - (2003), pp. 3-9. (Intervento presentato al convegno Proceedings of the2003 – International Workshop on Modelling and Applied Simula- tion tenutosi a Bergeggi, Italy nel October 2003).
Ant colony optimization for vehicle routing in advanced logistics systems
Montemanni Roberto;
2003
Abstract
Many distribution companies service their customers with non homogeneous fleets of trucks. Their problem is to find a set of routes minimising the number of travelled kilometres and the number of used vehicles, while satisfying customer demand. There are three major problems why traditional Operations Research techniques are not enough to deal with this problem, which is known as the Vehicle Routing Problem. First of all, it is inherently combinatorial, and exact algorithms fail when the dimension of the problem (number of customers and orders) reaches a reasonable size. Secondly, the problem can be extended and made more complex in many ways, for instance, adding more than one depot, considering more than one vehicle type, accounting for stochastic customer demand (the exact requested quantity is known only at delivery time), considering time windows during which the customers must be served, taking into account vehicle accessibility restrictions (some customers cannot be served by some vehicles). Finally, the problem can become very different when we consider on-line distribution, that is, we accept delivery orders for lorries which are en route. There, geolocation of customers and vehicles, online data transfer among lorries and the base station, have an impact as great as the solution strategy. In this paper we present DyvOil and AntRoute, two software tools which assist the tour planner during the different stages of goods distribution, from pre-planning on the basis of reorder forecasts, to online planning, through offline planning based on an advanced metaheuristic such as Ant Colony System. We also describe the case of Pina Petroli, a fuel oil distribution company located in Canton Ticino, Switzerland, which operates a fleet of 12 vehicles and serves customers using DyvOil and Migros, the largest Swiss supermarket chain, which uses AntRoute operates daily a fleet of hundreds of trucks distributing goods to its shops.Pubblicazioni consigliate
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