求解硬时间窗约束下随机需求库存-路径问题的优化算法

随机需求库存-路径问题(Stochastic Demand Inventory Routing Problem,SDIRP)即考虑随机需求环境下供应链中库存与配送的协调优化问题,是实施供应商管理库存策略过程中的关键所在,也是典型的NP难题之一。文章以具有硬时间窗约束的随机需求库存-路径问题(Stochastic Demand Inventory Routing Problem with Hard Time Windows,SDIRPHTW)为研究对象,将SDIRPHTW分解为直接配送的随机库存-路径问题和具有硬时间窗约束的路径优化问题两个子问题,并以最小化系统运行成本和用车数量为目标,设计了一个基于(s,S)库存策略和修正C-W节约法的启发式算法。最后,通过相应的数值算例验证了算法的有效性。     

随机需求下多供应商和多零售商的生产-库存-运输联合优化模型

考虑随机需求下多供应商和多零售商的生产-库存-运输联合优化问题.在联合优化时,首先利用最近邻算法将各零售商分成不同区域,分区后问题转化为随机需求下单供应商对多零售商的生产-库存-运输联合优化问题.在每个分区内,由供应商统一决策其分区内各零售商的送货量和送货时间.利用粒子群算法和模拟退火算法相结合的两阶段算法求出最优送货量、最优运输路径和最大期望总利润.然后采用收入共享契约将增加的利润合理分配给各供应商和各零售商,使各方利润都得到增加,从而促使各方愿意合作.通过数值算例验证了联合优化模型优于独立决策模型.     

选址-库存-路径问题模型及其集成优化算法

设施选址、库存控制和车辆路径安排是物流系统优化中的三个关键问题,三者之间存在相互依赖的关系,应该根据这种关系来相应地进行综合优化与管理物流活动。以典型的单一生产基地、单一产品、采用不断审查的(Q,r)库存策略的供应链二级分销网络为研究对象,建立了一个随机型选址-库存-路径问题优化模型;在将非线性混合整数规划转化为线性整数集合覆盖模型的基础上,采用列生成算法来获得一个近似最优解,再用分支定价法对初始解进行改进,以实现对整个问题"完全集成"的优化。最后,用随机生成的方式,产生了10至160个客户的计算实例,分析了运输费用和库存费用对总成本的影响,算法运算时间表明本文给出的算法能较快地求解这一复杂问题。     

随机需求下单供应商与多零售商的生产—库存—运输联合优化模型

考虑随机需求下单供应商和多零售商的生产-库存-运输联合优化问题.在独立决策时,各零售商独立决策其最优订货量和最优订货点,供应商根据各零售商的决策来为之配送.在联合决策时,由供应商统一决策各零售商的送货量和送货时间,并基于此建立单供应商与多零售商的生产-库存-运输优化模型,利用粒子群算法和模拟退火算法相结合的两阶段算法求出最优送货量、最优运输路径和最大期望总利润.然后采用收入共享契约将增加的利润合理分配给供应商和各零售商,使各方利润都得到增加,从而促使各方愿意合作.最后,通过数值算例验证了联合优化模型优于独立决策模型.     

动态联合库存的决策模型及算法

考虑生产商、销售商联合库存的动态优化问题,建立的随机需求下生产-销售运作系统的排队模型,得到了系统的稳态概率分布和队长分布.以成本最小化为目标,模型算法找到了最优的运作策略和机器使用数量.数值模拟的结果表明,依赖于指定机器数量的动态调整策略明显优于静态系统.     

基于顾客低碳行为偏好的选址-路径-库存集成优化模型与算法

针对自愿减排驱动下的顾客低碳行为偏好对选址-路径-库存决策的影响进行研究。首先推导了顾客低碳行为偏好下的市场需求函数和价格函数,并构建了考虑单位产品碳排放量和经济成本的多目标选址-路径-库存优化模型,通过对多目标优化模型的求解可得碳排放量和经济成本间的Pareto解集。在此基础上,定义了碳配额税的概念,可得顾客低碳行为偏好和碳配额税下的总收益函数。最后通过数值分析给出了自愿减排和监管减排两种机制共同作用下的企业减排方案和灵敏度分析。     

基于粒子群优化算法的库存不确定性分析

库存不确定性问题是供应链不确定性研究的重点之一.利用粒子群优化算法快速搜寻最优解的优点对库存不确定性问题进行仿真分析,得出了库存不确定性环境下的最优解,这说明了粒子群优化算法能够辅助供应链管理者在不确定性环境下对供应链进行优化设计和决策分析.     

模糊环境下可控提前期供应链库存优化的Stackelberg模型研究

为了有效地缩短提前期与降低库存成本,研究了模糊环境下可控提前期的供应链库存优化问题.利用三角形模糊数描述需求的不确定性,建立了一类模糊需求条件下可控提前期供应链库存优化的Stackelberg模型.利用三角形模糊数描述成本系数的不确定性,建立了模糊成本系数条件下可控提前期供应链库存优化的Stackelberg模型,并提出利用均值面积度量法来解模糊化.通过数值分析来验证两类模型的优化效果.     

变换核估计在未知需求分布函数条件下多阶段库存控制策略中的应用研究

传统的多阶段库存控制主要致力于库存持有以及过多库存的经济性研究.随机库存模型经常假定需求分布已知,这样可以产生容易解决的方案.但随着销售信息的不断更新,需求分布函数的参数常常未知.这样传统的多阶段库存模型很难产生最优的库存控制策略.当前文献对未知需求分布函数条件下的多阶段库存管理问题研究得不多,当需求分布函数随时间变化,是个多阶段随机规划问题,通常情况难以直接进行求解.针对一般非平稳需求,还缺少有效的库存管理方法.本文致力于变换核估计和优化理论相结合的方法研究未知需求分布函数条件下多阶段库存控制策略,提供一条多阶段库存控制的新思路.可以很好地确定各阶段的最优订货点、最高库存、最低库存等来达到整个系统的最优,从而节省更多的成本,达到营运资本的永久性减少、更高的销售量和客户满意度,从而增加企业的竞争力.     

考虑缺货的闭环供应链选址-库存-路径集成优化

再制造是企业实现环境友好、提升经济效益的重要策略之一;再制造的发展推动了新商业模式的出现,即产品服务系统;高效的再制造物流网络对于成功实施再制造十分重要。本文研究了基于产品服务系统下的再制造物流网络集成优化问题,即闭环供应链的选址-库存-路径的集成优化决策问题,且在库存策略中允许库存出现缺货的情况;论文基于产品服务系统模式构建了混合非线性规划模型来最小化生产、选址、配送、库存以及缺货成本,并采用了改进的禁忌搜索算法进行求解。通过与传统禁忌搜索算法的计算结果进行对比,表明本文中的算法能在可接受的时间内得到较优解。通过算例的敏感性分析得出,企业所服务的顾客如果接受再制造产品,提高回收率可以节约成本;在回收率一定时,客户在缺货情形下的制造和再制造批量比不允许缺货时要大,企业总成本比不允许缺货时要小。     

求解最小Steiner树的蚁群优化算法及其收敛性

最小Steiner树问题是NP难问题,它在通信网络等许多实际问题中有着广泛的应用．蚁群优化算法是最近提出的求解复杂组合优化问题的启发式算法．本文以无线传感器网络中的核心问题之一,路由问题为例,给出了求解最小Steiner树的蚁群优化算法的框架．把算法的迭代过程看作是离散时间的马尔科夫过程,证明了在一定的条件下,该算法所产生的解能以任意接近于1的概率收敛到路由问题的最优解．     

Location-aided routing with uncertainty in mobile ad hoc networks: A stochastic semidefinite programming approach

We study location-aided routing under mobility in wireless ad hoc networks. Due to node mobility, the network topology changes continuously, and clearly there exists an intricate tradeoff between the message passing overhead and the latency in the route discovery process. Aiming to obtain a clear understanding of this tradeoff, we use stochastic semidefinite programming (SSDP), a newly developed optimization model, to deal with the location uncertainty associated with node mobility. In particular, we model both the speed and the direction of node movement by random variables and construct random ellipses accordingly to better capture the location uncertainty and the heterogeneity across different nodes. Based on SSDP, we propose a stochastic location-aided routing (SLAR) strategy to optimize the tradeoff between the message passing overhead and the latency. Our results reveal that in general SLAR can significantly reduce the overall overhead than existing deterministic algorithms, simply because the location uncertainty in the routing problem is better captured by the SSDP model.     

Restart strategies for GRASP with path-relinking heuristics

GRASP with path-relinking is a hybrid metaheuristic, or stochastic local search (Monte Carlo) method, for combinatorial optimization. A restart strategy in GRASP with path-relinking heuristics is a set of iterations {i ₁, i ₂, …} on which the heuristic is restarted from scratch using a new seed for the random number generator. Restart strategies have been shown to speed up stochastic local search algorithms. In this paper, we propose a new restart strategy for GRASP with path-relinking heuristics. We illustrate the speedup obtained with our restart strategy on GRASP with path-relinking heuristics for the maximum cut problem, the maximum weighted satisfiability problem, and the private virtual circuit routing problem.     

Stochastic single vehicle routing with a predefined customer sequence and multiple depot returns

We study the routing of a single vehicle that delivers multiple products under stochastic demand. Specifically, we investigate two practical variations of this problem: (i) The case in which each product type is stored in its dedicated compartment in the vehicle, and (ii) the case in which all products are stored together in the vehicle’s single compartment. Suitable dynamic programming algorithms are proposed to determine the minimum expected (routing) cost for each case. Furthermore, the optimal routing policy is derived by developing appropriate theorems. The efficiency of the algorithms is studied by solving large problem sets.     

On the use of the energy norm in trust-region and adaptive cubic regularization subproblems

We propose a multi-time scale quasi-Newton based smoothed functional (QN-SF) algorithm for stochastic optimization both with and without inequality constraints. The algorithm combines the smoothed functional (SF) scheme for estimating the gradient with the quasi-Newton method to solve the optimization problem. Newton algorithms typically update the Hessian at each instant and subsequently (a) project them to the space of positive definite and symmetric matrices, and (b) invert the projected Hessian. The latter operation is computationally expensive. In order to save computational effort, we propose in this paper a quasi-Newton SF (QN-SF) algorithm based on the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) update rule. In Bhatnagar (ACM TModel Comput S. 18(1): 27–62, 2007), a Jacobi variant of Newton SF (JN-SF) was proposed and implemented to save computational effort. We compare our QN-SF algorithm with gradient SF (G-SF) and JN-SF algorithms on two different problems – first on a simple stochastic function minimization problem and the other on a problem of optimal routing in a queueing network. We observe from the experiments that the QN-SF algorithm performs significantly better than both G-SF and JN-SF algorithms on both the problem settings. Next we extend the QN-SF algorithm to the case of constrained optimization. In this case too, the QN-SF algorithm performs much better than the JN-SF algorithm. Finally we present the proof of convergence for the QN-SF algorithm in both unconstrained and constrained settings.     

Solving multiobjective vehicle routing problem with stochastic demand via evolutionary computation

This paper considers the routing of vehicles with limited capacity from a central depot to a set of geographically dispersed customers where actual demand is revealed only when the vehicle arrives at the customer. The solution to this vehicle routing problem with stochastic demand (VRPSD) involves the optimization of complete routing schedules with minimum travel distance, driver remuneration, and number of vehicles, subject to a number of constraints such as time windows and vehicle capacity. To solve such a multiobjective and multi-modal combinatorial optimization problem, this paper presents a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm that incorporates two VRPSD-specific heuristics for local exploitation and a route simulation method to evaluate the fitness of solutions. A new way of assessing the quality of solutions to the VRPSD on top of comparing their expected costs is also proposed. It is shown that the algorithm is capable of finding useful tradeoff solutions for the VRPSD and the solutions are robust to the stochastic nature of the problem. The developed algorithm is further validated on a few VRPSD instances adapted from Solomon’s vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) benchmark problems.     

Online stochastic optimization under time constraints

This paper considers online stochastic combinatorial optimization problems where uncertainties, i.e., which requests come and when, are characterized by distributions that can be sampled and where time constraints severely limit the number of offline optimizations which can be performed at decision time and/or in between decisions. It proposes online stochastic algorithms that combine the frameworks of online and stochastic optimization. Online stochastic algorithms differ from traditional a priori methods such as stochastic programming and Markov Decision Processes by focusing on the instance data that is revealed over time. The paper proposes three main algorithms: expectation E, consensus C, and regret R. They all make online decisions by approximating, for each decision, the solution to a multi-stage stochastic program using an exterior sampling method and a polynomial number of samples. The algorithms were evaluated experimentally and theoretically. The experimental results were obtained on three applications of different nature: packet scheduling, multiple vehicle routing with time windows, and multiple vehicle dispatching. The theoretical results show that, under assumptions which seem to hold on these, and other, applications, algorithm E has an expected constant loss compared to the offline optimal solution. Algorithm R reduces the number of optimizations by a factor |R|, where R is the number of requests, and has an expected ρ(1+o(1)) loss when the regret gives a ρ-approximation to the offline problem.     

Multi-objective vehicle routing problems

Routing problems, such as the traveling salesman problem and the vehicle routing problem, are widely studied both because of their classic academic appeal and their numerous real-life applications. Similarly, the field of multi-objective optimization is attracting more and more attention, notably because it offers new opportunities for defining problems. This article surveys the existing research related to multi-objective optimization in routing problems. It examines routing problems in terms of their definitions, their objectives, and the multi-objective algorithms proposed for solving them.     

Two approaches to optimal routing and admission control in systems with real-time traffic

This paper addresses the problem of routing and admission control of real-time traffic in a queueing system where customers must begin service within given deadlines (or complete service within given deadlines), otherwise they are considered lost. Performance in such systems is measured by the probability a customer is lost. For a system ofK parallel servers with a probabilistic routing and admission control scheme, the problem of the optimal routing and admission control is considered and two approaches are presented. Assuming the availability of a closed-form expression for the probability of loss at each server, the problem is solved under general conditions and properties of the optimal flow allocation are given. However, such closed-form expressions are often unavailable. This motivates a second approach, which involves a gradient-based stochastic optimization algorithm with on-line gradient estimation. The gradient estimation problem for loss probabilities is solved through a recently-developed smoothed perturbation analysis (SPA) technique. The effectiveness of on-line stochastic optimization using this type of gradient estimator is demonstrated by combining the SPA algorithm with a sampling-controlled stochastic optimization algorithm for the aforementioned routing and admission control problem.This work was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-87-K-0304, by the Rome Air Development Center under Contract F30602-88-D-0027, by NASA under Contract NAG 2-595, and by the National Science Foundation under Grant EID-92-12122.The authors are grateful to Don Towsley for several contributions to Section 2 and to an anonymous reviewer for pointing out a redundant assumption in the proof of Lemma 2.1.     

Stochastic vehicle routing: A comprehensive approach

A vehicle routing problem is stochastic when the demands at individual delivery (pickup) locations behave as random variables, and the routes must be defined before the values of these random variables become known. This paper presents several formulations and heuristic algorithms for solving this complex problem.