An integrated approach to the vehicle routing and container loading problems

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2009

Authors

Ana Moura (Author) Other; Jose Fernando Oliveira (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: OR Spektrum

Vol. 31 No. 4

Pages: 775-800

ISSN: 0171-6468

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 60 Citations

Scopus - 74 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Industrial biotechnology

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-003-FJM

DOI: 10.1007/s00291-008-0129-4

Abstract (EN): Real-world distribution problems raise some practical considerations that usually are not considered in a realistic way in more theoretical studies. One of these considerations is related to the vehicle capacity, not only in terms of cubic meters or weight capacity but also in terms of the cargo physical arrangements. In a distribution scene, two combinatorial optimization problems, the vehicle routing problem with time windows and the container loading problem, are inherently related to each other. This work presents a framework to integrate these two problems using two different resolution methods. The first one treats the problem in a sequential approach, while the second uses a hierarchical approach. To test the quality and efficiency of the proposed approaches, some test problems were created based on the well-known Solomon, Bischoff and Ratcliff test problems. The results of the integrated approaches are presented and compared with results of the vehicle routing problem with time windows and the container loading problem applied separately.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 26