IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/proeco/v121y2009i2p752-767.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A simulation/metaheuristic approach to newspaper production and distribution supply chain problems

Author

Listed:
  • Chiang, Wen-Chyuan
  • Russell, Robert
  • Xu, Xiaojing
  • Zepeda, David

Abstract

In this paper, we examine two-level and three-level supply chains for a midsize US newspaper in the Midwest that delivers to households and businesses in over 200 zip codes that span across various states. We formally define this problem as an integrated newspaper production and distribution supply chain management problem. Using a combination of model formulation, simulation, and an improvement heuristic we address both the efficiency and robustness of the solution by considering the impact of the stochastic nature of various parameters in both production and distribution. A deterministic formulation of the open vehicle routing problem with time windows and zoning constraints is utilized for vehicle scheduling and routing. A generalized network assignment problem is used to generate initial solutions and a tabu search metaheuristic solution approach is applied to improve solutions satisfying zone constraints and various approximate probabilities of satisfying delivery deadlines. However, the production and distribution process involves stochastic phenomena. We use simulation to evaluate the performance of the proposed solution. We estimate the customer service level of delivering to locations before 4:00 am. We also discuss improvement procedures if the service level is unsatisfactory.

Suggested Citation

  • Chiang, Wen-Chyuan & Russell, Robert & Xu, Xiaojing & Zepeda, David, 2009. "A simulation/metaheuristic approach to newspaper production and distribution supply chain problems," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(2), pages 752-767, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:121:y:2009:i:2:p:752-767
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925-5273(09)00069-3
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gendreau, Michel & Laporte, Gilbert & Seguin, Rene, 1996. "Stochastic vehicle routing," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 3-12, January.
    2. Gilbert Laporte & François Louveaux & Hélène Mercure, 1992. "The Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Travel Times," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 161-170, August.
    3. R A Russell & T L Urban, 2008. "Vehicle routing with soft time windows and Erlang travel times," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(9), pages 1220-1228, September.
    4. Wen-Chyuan Chiang & Robert A. Russell, 1997. "A Reactive Tabu Search Metaheuristic for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 417-430, November.
    5. Brandao, Jose, 2004. "A tabu search algorithm for the open vehicle routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(3), pages 552-564, September.
    6. Van Buer, Michael G. & Woodruff, David L. & Olson, Rick T., 1999. "Solving the medium newspaper production/distribution problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 237-253, June.
    7. Wu, Desheng & Olson, David L., 2008. "Supply chain risk, simulation, and vendor selection," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 646-655, August.
    8. Olli Bräysy & Michel Gendreau, 2005. "Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows, Part I: Route Construction and Local Search Algorithms," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(1), pages 104-118, February.
    9. Carter, Arthur E. & Ragsdale, Cliff T., 2002. "Scheduling pre-printed newspaper advertising inserts using genetic algorithms," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 415-421, December.
    10. Z Fu & R Eglese & L Y O Li, 2005. "A new tabu search heuristic for the open vehicle routing problem," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 56(3), pages 267-274, March.
    11. Jack P. C. Kleijnen & Susan M. Sanchez & Thomas W. Lucas & Thomas M. Cioppa, 2005. "State-of-the-Art Review: A User’s Guide to the Brave New World of Designing Simulation Experiments," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 17(3), pages 263-289, August.
    12. Olli Bräysy & Michel Gendreau, 2005. "Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows, Part II: Metaheuristics," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(1), pages 119-139, February.
    13. D Sariklis & S Powell, 2000. "A heuristic method for the open vehicle routing problem," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 51(5), pages 564-573, May.
    14. Mantel, R. J. & Fontein, M., 1993. "A practical solution to a newspaper distribution problem," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 591-599, July.
    15. Éric Taillard & Philippe Badeau & Michel Gendreau & François Guertin & Jean-Yves Potvin, 1997. "A Tabu Search Heuristic for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Soft Time Windows," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 170-186, May.
    16. Dimitris J. Bertsimas & David Simchi-Levi, 1996. "A New Generation of Vehicle Routing Research: Robust Algorithms, Addressing Uncertainty," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(2), pages 286-304, April.
    17. Marshall Fisher, 2007. "Strengthening the Empirical Base of Operations Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 368-382, December.
    18. G. Clarke & J. W. Wright, 1964. "Scheduling of Vehicles from a Central Depot to a Number of Delivery Points," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 568-581, August.
    19. Wen-Huei Yang & Kamlesh Mathur & Ronald H. Ballou, 2000. "Stochastic Vehicle Routing Problem with Restocking," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 99-112, February.
    20. Astrid S. Kenyon & David P. Morton, 2003. "Stochastic Vehicle Routing with Random Travel Times," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(1), pages 69-82, February.
    21. Krishna Chepuri & Tito Homem-de-Mello, 2005. "Solving the Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands using the Cross-Entropy Method," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 153-181, February.
    22. Martin I. Reiman & Rodrigo Rubio & Lawrence M. Wein, 1999. "Heavy Traffic Analysis of the Dynamic Stochastic Inventory-Routing Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(4), pages 361-380, November.
    23. Michel Gendreau & Gilbert Laporte & René Séguin, 1996. "A Tabu Search Heuristic for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands and Customers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(3), pages 469-477, June.
    24. Kevin B. Hendricks & Vinod R. Singhal, 2005. "Association Between Supply Chain Glitches and Operating Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(5), pages 695-711, May.
    25. Chandra, Pankaj & Fisher, Marshall L., 1994. "Coordination of production and distribution planning," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 503-517, February.
    26. Jamshid Gharajedaghi & Russell L. Ackoff, 1984. "Mechanisms, organisms and social systems," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(3), pages 289-300, July.
    27. Dimitris Bertsimas & Philippe Chervi & Michael Peterson, 1995. "Computational Approaches to Stochastic Vehicle Routing Problems," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 342-352, November.
    28. Chiang, Yu-Sheng & O. Roberts, Paul, 1980. "A note on transit time and reliability for regular-route trucking," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 14(1-2), pages 59-65.
    29. Carlos F. Daganzo, 1984. "The Distance Traveled to Visit N Points with a Maximum of C Stops per Vehicle: An Analytic Model and an Application," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 331-350, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zakaria Chekoubi & Wajdi Trabelsi & Nathalie Sauer & Ilias Majdouline, 2022. "The Integrated Production-Inventory-Routing Problem with Reverse Logistics and Remanufacturing: A Two-Phase Decomposition Heuristic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-30, October.
    2. Amorim, P. & Belo-Filho, M.A.F. & Toledo, F.M.B. & Almeder, C. & Almada-Lobo, B., 2013. "Lot sizing versus batching in the production and distribution planning of perishable goods," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 208-218.
    3. M Laguna & J Molina & F Pérez & R Caballero & A G Hernández-Díaz, 2010. "The challenge of optimizing expensive black boxes: a scatter search/rough set theory approach," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(1), pages 53-67, January.
    4. Ling Liu & Sen Liu, 2020. "Integrated Production and Distribution Problem of Perishable Products with a Minimum Total Order Weighted Delivery Time," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-18, January.
    5. Böhnlein, Dominik & Schweiger, Katharina & Tuma, Axel, 2011. "Multi-agent-based transport planning in the newspaper industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 146-157, May.
    6. Pedro L. Miranda & Reinaldo Morabito & Deisemara Ferreira, 2018. "Optimization model for a production, inventory, distribution and routing problem in small furniture companies," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 26(1), pages 30-67, April.
    7. Zhen, Lu & Wu, Yiwei & Wang, Shuaian & Yi, Wen, 2021. "Crowdsourcing mode evaluation for parcel delivery service platforms," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    8. Liang-Liang Fu & Mohamed Ali Aloulou & Christian Artigues, 2018. "Integrated production and outbound distribution scheduling problems with job release dates and deadlines," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 443-460, August.
    9. Chevroton, Hugo & Kergosien, Yannick & Berghman, Lotte & Billaut, Jean-Charles, 2021. "Solving an integrated scheduling and routing problem with inventory, routing and penalty costs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 294(2), pages 571-589.
    10. Wang, Gang & Lei, Lei, 2012. "Polynomial-time solvable cases of the capacitated multi-echelon shipping network scheduling problem with delivery deadlines," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(2), pages 263-271.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jorge Oyola & Halvard Arntzen & David L. Woodruff, 2017. "The stochastic vehicle routing problem, a literature review, Part II: solution methods," EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 6(4), pages 349-388, December.
    2. Russell, Robert, 2013. "A constraint programming approach to designing a newspaper distribution system," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 132-138.
    3. R A Russell & T L Urban, 2008. "Vehicle routing with soft time windows and Erlang travel times," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(9), pages 1220-1228, September.
    4. Walter Rei & Michel Gendreau & Patrick Soriano, 2010. "A Hybrid Monte Carlo Local Branching Algorithm for the Single Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 136-146, February.
    5. Jorge Oyola & Halvard Arntzen & David L. Woodruff, 2018. "The stochastic vehicle routing problem, a literature review, part I: models," EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 7(3), pages 193-221, September.
    6. Goodson, Justin C. & Ohlmann, Jeffrey W. & Thomas, Barrett W., 2012. "Cyclic-order neighborhoods with application to the vehicle routing problem with stochastic demand," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 217(2), pages 312-323.
    7. Schmid, Verena & Doerner, Karl F. & Laporte, Gilbert, 2013. "Rich routing problems arising in supply chain management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 224(3), pages 435-448.
    8. Novoa, Clara & Storer, Robert, 2009. "An approximate dynamic programming approach for the vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(2), pages 509-515, July.
    9. Bhoopalam, Anirudh Kishore & Agatz, Niels & Zuidwijk, Rob, 2018. "Planning of truck platoons: A literature review and directions for future research," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 212-228.
    10. Prasanna Balaprakash & Mauro Birattari & Thomas Stützle & Marco Dorigo, 2015. "Estimation-based metaheuristics for the single vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands and customers," Computational Optimization and Applications, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 463-487, June.
    11. Majid Salavati-Khoshghalb & Michel Gendreau & Ola Jabali & Walter Rei, 2019. "A hybrid recourse policy for the vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands," EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 8(3), pages 269-298, September.
    12. Soumia Ichoua & Michel Gendreau & Jean-Yves Potvin, 2006. "Exploiting Knowledge About Future Demands for Real-Time Vehicle Dispatching," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(2), pages 211-225, May.
    13. Mohamed Cissé & Semih Yalçindag & Yannick Kergosien & Evren Sahin & Christophe Lenté & Andrea Matta, 2017. "OR problems related to Home Health Care: A review of relevant routing and scheduling problems," Post-Print hal-01736714, HAL.
    14. Böhnlein, Dominik & Schweiger, Katharina & Tuma, Axel, 2011. "Multi-agent-based transport planning in the newspaper industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 146-157, May.
    15. Shukla, Nagesh & Choudhary, A.K. & Prakash, P.K.S. & Fernandes, K.J. & Tiwari, M.K., 2013. "Algorithm portfolios for logistics optimization considering stochastic demands and mobility allowance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 146-166.
    16. Pillac, Victor & Gendreau, Michel & Guéret, Christelle & Medaglia, Andrés L., 2013. "A review of dynamic vehicle routing problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 225(1), pages 1-11.
    17. Li, Xiangyong & Tian, Peng & Leung, Stephen C.H., 2010. "Vehicle routing problems with time windows and stochastic travel and service times: Models and algorithm," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1), pages 137-145, May.
    18. P P Repoussis & C D Tarantilis & G Ioannou, 2007. "The open vehicle routing problem with time windows," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 58(3), pages 355-367, March.
    19. Ehmke, Jan Fabian & Campbell, Ann Melissa & Urban, Timothy L., 2015. "Ensuring service levels in routing problems with time windows and stochastic travel times," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(2), pages 539-550.
    20. Lahyani, Rahma & Khemakhem, Mahdi & Semet, Frédéric, 2015. "Rich vehicle routing problems: From a taxonomy to a definition," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(1), pages 1-14.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:121:y:2009:i:2:p:752-767. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpe .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.