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Scheduling direct deliveries with time windows to minimise truck fleet size and customer waiting times

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  • Simon Emde
  • Shohre Zehtabian

Abstract

This paper tackles the operational problem of scheduling direct deliveries from a single source (e.g. a distribution centre) to multiple customers (e.g. assembly plants). The problem consists of scheduling a set of given round trips such that each trip is processed exactly once within its time window and the employed truck fleet is as small as possible. Moreover, as a secondary objective, customer waiting times should be minimal. Such planning problems arise in many industries like, for instance, the automotive industry, where just-in-time parts are often shipped via direct delivery to OEMs. We propose two different mixed-integer programming models for this problem, discuss similarities to classic routing and scheduling problems from the literature, identify a subproblem that is solvable in polynomial time and propose suitable heuristics. In a computational study, the proposed procedures are shown to perform well both on newly generated instances as well as those from the literature. We also show that minimising waiting times is an adequate measure to make schedules more robust in the face of unforeseen disturbances.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Emde & Shohre Zehtabian, 2019. "Scheduling direct deliveries with time windows to minimise truck fleet size and customer waiting times," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(5), pages 1315-1330, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tprsxx:v:57:y:2019:i:5:p:1315-1330
    DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2018.1470696
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Timo Gschwind & Stefan Irnich & Christian Tilk & Simon Emde, 2020. "Branch-cut-and-price for scheduling deliveries with time windows in a direct shipping network," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 363-377, June.
    2. Diefenbach, Heiko & Emde, Simon & Glock, Christoph H., 2023. "Multi-depot electric vehicle scheduling in in-plant production logistics considering non-linear charging models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(2), pages 828-848.
    3. Simon Emde & Shohre Zehtabian & Yann Disser, 2023. "Point-to-point and milk run delivery scheduling: models, complexity results, and algorithms based on Benders decomposition," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 322(1), pages 467-496, March.

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