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An integrated approach for three-dimensional capacitated vehicle routing problem considering time windows

Ashkan Ayough (Department of Industrial Management, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C., Tehran, Iran)
Behrooz Khorshidvand (Department of Productivity Management, Iran Centre for Management Studies (ICMS), Tehran, Iran)
Negah Massomnedjad (Department of Productivity Management, Iran Centre for Management Studies (ICMS), Tehran, Iran)
Alireza Motameni (Department of Industrial Management, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C., Tehran, Iran)

Journal of Modelling in Management

ISSN: 1746-5664

Article publication date: 20 February 2020

Issue publication date: 4 August 2020

267

Abstract

Purpose

As a critical problem in sophisticated distribution systems, vehicle routing plays a pivotal role in dealing with time windows and capacities constraints. The purpose of this paper is to addresses a new integrated model to incorporate both three-dimensional and time windows aspects of the routing problem. First, capacitated vehicle routing decisions are made subject to a soft time interval to meet the customers’ demands. Afterward, these decisions are entered into the three-dimensional loading problem.

Design/methodology/approach

The problem is solved using generalized algebraic modeling system software in small-size problems. The problem is NP-hard and requires an efficient solution methodology. For this purpose, a hybrid algorithm has been proposed to solve the large-size problems. The efficiency of this algorithm is checked by making comparisons with exact solutions for small and medium size test problems, and with the related literature for large size problems.

Findings

The numerical experiments show that the proposed model covers more effectively the broader aspects of the transportation problem. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm supports competitive and satisfactory results by giving reasonable outputs in comparison with previous studies.

Originality/value

The main purpose of this integration is to achieve minimum total transportation costs, which cannot be guaranteed without applying two referred constraints, simultaneously.

Keywords

Citation

Ayough, A., Khorshidvand, B., Massomnedjad, N. and Motameni, A. (2020), "An integrated approach for three-dimensional capacitated vehicle routing problem considering time windows", Journal of Modelling in Management, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 995-1015. https://doi.org/10.1108/JM2-11-2018-0183

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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