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An Analysis of the Impact of Service Consistency on the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

Author

Listed:
  • Guillermo Bianchi

    (Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad Católica del Norte, Av. Angamos 0610, Antofagasta 1270709, Chile)

  • Hernán Lespay

    (Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad Católica del Norte, Av. Angamos 0610, Antofagasta 1270709, Chile)

Abstract

This paper proposes a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model for the consistent vehicle routing problem with time windows (ConVRPTW), motivated by the need to enhance customer satisfaction in the last-mile logistics industry. The problem involves designing a set of consistent routes for a group of customers whose demand fluctuates from one period to another within a specified planning horizon. The objective is to minimize the cost associated with the number of vehicles used and the total travel time while satisfying service consistency constraints. A tabu search (TS) metaheuristic is implemented to solve the proposed model, and its performance is compared with the optimal solutions. Instances of 10 and 20 customers are designed based on the well-known Solomon instances for VRPTW. Finally, the solutions obtained from the ConVRPTW model are compared with those of a traditional VRPTW model using some key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the contribution of service consistency to route design.

Suggested Citation

  • Guillermo Bianchi & Hernán Lespay, 2025. "An Analysis of the Impact of Service Consistency on the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-22, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:13:y:2025:i:18:p:3053-:d:1754956
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