IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v302y2022i3p1189-1201.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An improved formulation for the inventory routing problem with time-varying demands

Author

Listed:
  • Skålnes, Jørgen
  • Andersson, Henrik
  • Desaulniers, Guy
  • Stålhane, Magnus

Abstract

The Inventory Routing Problem (IRP) is a broad class of complex routing problems where the quantities of delivered products must also be determined. In this paper, we consider the classic IRP where a single supplier must determine when to visit its customers, how much to deliver and how to combine the customer visits in each period into routes. We propose a branch-and-cut algorithm based on a new mathematical formulation for the IRP, improving the average lower bound obtained from algorithms based on the branch-and-cut methodology. The new formulation substitutes parts of the original formulation with a convex combination of extreme points. We call these extreme points customer schedules and for each customer they contain information about delivery periods and corresponding delivered quantities. We show that this algorithm outperforms a state-of-the-art branch-and-cut algorithm on instances with time-varying demands. The customer schedule-based algorithm obtains better lower bounds, which improves the average optimality gap by 29% and 15% on two new sets of instances with time-varying demands.

Suggested Citation

  • Skålnes, Jørgen & Andersson, Henrik & Desaulniers, Guy & Stålhane, Magnus, 2022. "An improved formulation for the inventory routing problem with time-varying demands," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(3), pages 1189-1201.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:302:y:2022:i:3:p:1189-1201
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2022.02.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221722000972
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2022.02.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Claudia Archetti & Natashia Boland & Grazia Speranza, 2017. "A Matheuristic for the Multivehicle Inventory Routing Problem," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 377-387, August.
    2. Guy Desaulniers & Jørgen G. Rakke & Leandro C. Coelho, 2016. "A Branch-Price-and-Cut Algorithm for the Inventory-Routing Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(3), pages 1060-1076, August.
    3. Archetti, Claudia & Speranza, M. Grazia & Boccia, Maurizio & Sforza, Antonio & Sterle, Claudio, 2020. "A branch-and-cut algorithm for the inventory routing problem with pickups and deliveries," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 282(3), pages 886-895.
    4. Coelho, Leandro C. & Laporte, Gilbert, 2014. "Improved solutions for inventory-routing problems through valid inequalities and input ordering," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 391-397.
    5. Pasquale Avella & Maurizio Boccia & Laurence A. Wolsey, 2018. "Single-period cutting planes for inventory routing problems," LIDAM Reprints CORE 3009, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    6. Pasquale Avella & Maurizio Boccia & Laurence A. Wolsey, 2018. "Single-Period Cutting Planes for Inventory Routing Problems," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(3), pages 497-508, June.
    7. Claudia Archetti & Luca Bertazzi & Gilbert Laporte & Maria Grazia Speranza, 2007. "A Branch-and-Cut Algorithm for a Vendor-Managed Inventory-Routing Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(3), pages 382-391, August.
    8. George B. Dantzig & Philip Wolfe, 1960. "Decomposition Principle for Linear Programs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 8(1), pages 101-111, February.
    9. Annelieke C. Baller & Said Dabia & Guy Desaulniers & Wout E. H. Dullaert, 2021. "The Inventory Routing Problem with Demand Moves," SN Operations Research Forum, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-61, March.
    10. Archetti, Claudia & Christiansen, Marielle & Grazia Speranza, M., 2018. "Inventory routing with pickups and deliveries," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 268(1), pages 314-324.
    11. Manousakis, Eleftherios & Repoussis, Panagiotis & Zachariadis, Emmanouil & Tarantilis, Christos, 2021. "Improved branch-and-cut for the Inventory Routing Problem based on a two-commodity flow formulation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 290(3), pages 870-885.
    12. Jean-Claude Picard & H. Donald Ratliff, 1973. "A Graph-Theoretic Equivalence for Integer Programs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 261-269, February.
    13. Alvarez, Aldair & Cordeau, Jean-François & Jans, Raf & Munari, Pedro & Morabito, Reinaldo, 2021. "Inventory routing under stochastic supply and demand," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    14. Yossiri Adulyasak & Jean-François Cordeau & Raf Jans, 2014. "Formulations and Branch-and-Cut Algorithms for Multivehicle Production and Inventory Routing Problems," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 26(1), pages 103-120, February.
    15. Claudia Archetti & Luca Bertazzi & Alain Hertz & M. Grazia Speranza, 2012. "A Hybrid Heuristic for an Inventory Routing Problem," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 101-116, February.
    16. Masoud Chitsaz & Jean-François Cordeau & Raf Jans, 2019. "A Unified Decomposition Matheuristic for Assembly, Production, and Inventory Routing," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 134-152, February.
    17. Drexl, Michael, 2013. "A note on the separation of subtour elimination constraints in elementary shortest path problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(3), pages 595-598.
    18. Walter J. Bell & Louis M. Dalberto & Marshall L. Fisher & Arnold J. Greenfield & R. Jaikumar & Pradeep Kedia & Robert G. Mack & Paul J. Prutzman, 1983. "Improving the Distribution of Industrial Gases with an On-Line Computerized Routing and Scheduling Optimizer," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 13(6), pages 4-23, December.
    19. Leandro C. Coelho & Jean-François Cordeau & Gilbert Laporte, 2014. "Thirty Years of Inventory Routing," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(1), pages 1-19, February.
    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. Diabat, Ali & Bianchessi, Nicola & Archetti, Claudia, 2024. "On the zero-inventory-ordering policy in the inventory routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(3), pages 1024-1038.
    2. Skålnes, Jørgen & Ben Ahmed, Mohamed & Hvattum, Lars Magnus & Stålhane, Magnus, 2024. "New benchmark instances for the inventory routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 313(3), pages 992-1014.

    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. Skålnes, Jørgen & Ben Ahmed, Mohamed & Hvattum, Lars Magnus & Stålhane, Magnus, 2024. "New benchmark instances for the inventory routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 313(3), pages 992-1014.
    2. Manousakis, Eleftherios & Repoussis, Panagiotis & Zachariadis, Emmanouil & Tarantilis, Christos, 2021. "Improved branch-and-cut for the Inventory Routing Problem based on a two-commodity flow formulation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 290(3), pages 870-885.
    3. Diabat, Ali & Bianchessi, Nicola & Archetti, Claudia, 2024. "On the zero-inventory-ordering policy in the inventory routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(3), pages 1024-1038.
    4. Archetti, Claudia & Ljubić, Ivana, 2022. "Comparison of formulations for the Inventory Routing Problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 303(3), pages 997-1008.
    5. Zhenzhen Zhang & Zhixing Luo & Roberto Baldacci & Andrew Lim, 2021. "A Benders Decomposition Approach for the Multivehicle Production Routing Problem with Order-up-to-Level Policy," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(1), pages 160-178, 1-2.
    6. Jia, Menglei & Chen, Feng, 2023. "Upward scalable vehicle routing problem of automobile inbound logistics with pickup flexibility," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    7. Mahmutoğulları, Özlem & Yaman, Hande, 2023. "A Branch-and-Cut Algorithm for the Inventory Routing Problem with Product Substitution," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    8. Bertazzi, Luca & Laganà, Demetrio & Ohlmann, Jeffrey W. & Paradiso, Rosario, 2020. "An exact approach for cyclic inbound inventory routing in a level production system," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 283(3), pages 915-928.
    9. Bertazzi, Luca & Coelho, Leandro C. & De Maio, Annarita & Laganà, Demetrio, 2019. "A matheuristic algorithm for the multi-depot inventory routing problem," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 524-544.
    10. Ziye Tang & Yang Jiao & R. Ravi, 2022. "Combinatorial Heuristics for Inventory Routing Problems," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 370-384, January.
    11. Bertazzi, Luca & Chua, Geoffrey A. & Laganà, Demetrio & Paradiso, Rosario, 2022. "Analysis of effective sets of routes for the split-delivery periodic inventory routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(2), pages 463-477.
    12. Cárdenas-Barrón, Leopoldo Eduardo & González-Velarde, José Luis & Treviño-Garza, Gerardo & Garza-Nuñez, Dagoberto, 2019. "Heuristic algorithm based on reduce and optimize approach for a selective and periodic inventory routing problem in a waste vegetable oil collection environment," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 44-59.
    13. Claudia Archetti & Natashia Boland & Grazia Speranza, 2017. "A Matheuristic for the Multivehicle Inventory Routing Problem," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 377-387, August.
    14. Çelik, Melih & Archetti, Claudia & Süral, Haldun, 2022. "Inventory routing in a warehouse: The storage replenishment routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 301(3), pages 1117-1132.
    15. Hu, Weihong & Toriello, Alejandro & Dessouky, Maged, 2018. "Integrated inventory routing and freight consolidation for perishable goods," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 271(2), pages 548-560.
    16. Archetti, Claudia & Coelho, Leandro C. & Grazia Speranza, M., 2019. "An exact algorithm for the inventory routing problem with logistic ratio," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 96-107.
    17. Masoud Chitsaz & Jean-François Cordeau & Raf Jans, 2019. "A Unified Decomposition Matheuristic for Assembly, Production, and Inventory Routing," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 134-152, February.
    18. Alvarez, Aldair & Cordeau, Jean-François & Jans, Raf & Munari, Pedro & Morabito, Reinaldo, 2020. "Formulations, branch-and-cut and a hybrid heuristic algorithm for an inventory routing problem with perishable products," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 283(2), pages 511-529.
    19. Annelieke C. Baller & Said Dabia & Guy Desaulniers & Wout E. H. Dullaert, 2021. "The Inventory Routing Problem with Demand Moves," SN Operations Research Forum, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-61, March.
    20. Pasquale Avella & Maurizio Boccia & Laurence A. Wolsey, 2018. "Single-Period Cutting Planes for Inventory Routing Problems," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(3), pages 497-508, June.

    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:ejores:v:302:y:2022:i:3:p:1189-1201. 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/eor .

    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.