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The Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Customer Inconvenience Constraints

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  • Nicola Bianchessi

    (Chair of Logistics Management, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg University, D-55128 Mainz, Germany)

  • Michael Drexl

    (Chair of Logistics Management, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg University, D-55128 Mainz, Germany; Faculty of Applied Natural Sciences and Industrial Engineering, Deggendorf Institute of Technology, D-94469 Deggendorf, Germany)

  • Stefan Irnich

    (Chair of Logistics Management, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg University, D-55128 Mainz, Germany)

Abstract

In classical routing problems, each customer is visited exactly once. By contrast, when allowing split deliveries, customers may be served through multiple visits. This potentially results in substantial savings in travel costs. Even if split deliveries are beneficial to the transport company, several visits may be undesirable on the customer side: At each visit the customer has to interrupt his primary activities and handle the goods receipt. The contribution of the present paper consists in a thorough analysis of the possibilities and limitations of split delivery distribution strategies. To this end, we investigate two different types of measures for limiting customer inconvenience (a maximum number of visits and the temporal synchronization of deliveries) and evaluate the impact of these measures on carrier efficiency by means of different objective functions (comprising variable routing costs, costs related to route durations, and fixed fleet costs). We consider the vehicle routing problem with time windows in which split deliveries are allowed (SDVRPTW) and define the corresponding generalization that takes into account customer inconvenience constraints (SDVRPTW-IC). We design an extended branch-and-cut algorithm to solve the SDVRPTW-IC and report on experimental results showing the impact of customer inconvenience constraints. We finally draw useful insights for logistics managers on the basis of the experimental analysis carried out.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicola Bianchessi & Michael Drexl & Stefan Irnich, 2019. "The Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Customer Inconvenience Constraints," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(4), pages 1067-1084, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:53:y:2019:i:4:p:1067-1084
    DOI: 10.1287/trsc.2018.0862
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Pedro Munari & Martin Savelsbergh, 2020. "A Column Generation-Based Heuristic for the Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows," SN Operations Research Forum, Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 1-24, December.
    2. Katrin Heßler & Stefan Irnich, 2023. "Partial Dominance in Branch-Price-and-Cut for the Basic Multicompartment Vehicle-Routing Problem," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 35(1), pages 50-65, January.
    3. Annelieke C. Baller & Said Dabia & Wout E. H. Dullaert & Daniele Vigo, 2020. "The Vehicle Routing Problem with Partial Outsourcing," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(4), pages 1034-1052, July.
    4. Xiaofan Lai & Liang Xu & Zhou Xu & Yang Du, 2023. "An Approximation Algorithm for k -Depot Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 35(5), pages 1179-1194, September.
    5. Katrin Heßler & Stefan Irnich, 2021. "Partial Dominance in Branch-Price-and-Cut for the Basic Multi-Compartment Vehicle-Routing Problem," Working Papers 2115, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    6. Esmaeilbeigi, Rasul & Mak-Hau, Vicky & Yearwood, John & Nguyen, Vivian, 2022. "The multiphase course timetabling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 300(3), pages 1098-1119.
    7. Ozgur Kabadurmus & Mehmet S. Erdogan, 2023. "A green vehicle routing problem with multi-depot, multi-tour, heterogeneous fleet and split deliveries: a mathematical model and heuristic approach," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 1-29, April.

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