Ant colony optimisation-based heuristic for a location-routing problem: a case study in parcel delivery services
by Vinay V. Panicker; R. Sridharan
International Journal of Data Science (IJDS), Vol. 1, No. 3, 2016

Abstract: This work focuses on solving a practical case of location-routing problem (LRP) in parcel delivery services. The work intends to determine a set of depots to be opened and design the distribution routes for a parcel delivery firm. The problem is constrained by the capacity of depots and the total delivery time available on the vehicle. Moreover, there is a homogenous fleet of vehicles visiting each customer just once, delivering their parcel(s). The objective is to minimise the total cost incurred while delivering the parcels. An ant colony optimisation (ACO)-based heuristic is proposed to solve the practical application of LRP. A computational study under three operational policies has been carried out to confirm the potentialities of the proposed heuristic in solving the problem. A comparative analysis between the solutions obtained using the proposed heuristic and the present solution adopted by the firm demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed heuristic.

Online publication date: Sun, 17-Apr-2016

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