Solving the Dial-a-Ride problem using genetic algorithms

In the Dial-a-Ride problem (DARP), customers request transportation from an operator. A request consists of a specified pickup location and destination location along with a desired departure or arrival time and capacity demand. The aim of DARP is to minimize transportation cost while satisfying customer service level constraints (Quality of Service). In this paper, we present a genetic algorithm (GA) for solving the DARP. The algorithm is based on the classical cluster-first, route-second approach, where it alternates between assigning customers to vehicles using a GA and solving independent routing problems for the vehicles using a routing heuristic. The algorithm is implemented in Java and tested on publicly available data sets. The new solution method has achieved solutions comparable with the current state-of-the-art methods.     

An iterated local search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with convex time penalty functions

We propose an iterated local search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time window constraints. We treat the time window constraint for each customer as a penalty function, and assume that it is convex and piecewise linear. Given an order of customers each vehicle to visit, dynamic programming (DP) is used to determine the optimal start time to serve the customers so that the total time penalty is minimized. This DP algorithm is then incorporated in the iterated local search algorithm to efficiently evaluate solutions in various neighborhoods. The amortized time complexity of evaluating a solution in the neighborhoods is a logarithmic order of the input size (i.e., the total number of linear pieces that define the penalty functions). Computational comparisons on benchmark instances with up to 1000 customers show that the proposed method is quite effective, especially for large instances.     

A hierarchical approach for one-dimensional cutting stock problems in the steel industry that maximizes yield and minimizes overgrading

In the steel industry, as hot steel products exit the producing facility, they are cut at primary saws (hotsaws) into shorter pieces. After these pieces cool, they are inspected for defects and either applied directly to customer orders or are further cut to ordered lengths at secondary saws (cold saws). In this case study, we will describe a hierarchical algorithm, DYNACUT_CS, that efficiently and effectively generates cutting patterns for material that is to be cut at cold saws. DYNACUT_CS strives to maximize yield over all the material cut and simultaneously tries to minimize overgrading (applying higher quality material than specified by the customer). An example will be given to illustrate how the algorithm works. This approach has been implemented for a variety of products at several different Bethlehem Steel Corporation facilities.     

Multiple-Attribute-Based Expert Support System for Customer/Order Evaluation

Sales and marketing people routinely evaluate and rank their customers to develop a marketing strategy and plan of action for utilizing available sales resources. Performing this evaluation informally makes it difficult to take into account all the significant customer attributes in a consistent and objective manner. In this paper an approach based on multiple attributes is developed to assist in evaluating customer performance. This approach is coded primarily in an expert system shell, which is run on a personal computer. The expert system shell was chosen over other software by the marketing people because they preferred its user-friendly capabilities. This system is being used by the Tin Mill Products Marketing office of Bethlehem Steel and is being considered for use by other product-line marketing offices within Bethlehem.     

A branch-and-price algorithm for a vehicle routing with demand allocation problem

We investigate the vehicle routing with demand allocation problem where the decision-maker jointly optimizes the location of delivery sites, the assignment of customers to (preferably convenient) delivery sites, and the routing of vehicles operated from a central depot to serve customers at their designated sites. We propose an effective branch-and-price (B&P) algorithm that is demonstrated to greatly outperform the use of commercial branch-and-bound/cut solvers such as CPLEX. Central to the efficacy of the proposed B&P algorithm is the development of a specialized dynamic programming procedure that extends works on elementary shortest path problems with resource constraints in order to solve the more complex column generation pricing subproblem. Our computational study demonstrates the efficacy of the proposed approach using a set of 60 problem instances. Moreover, the proposed methodology has the merit of providing optimal solutions in run times that are significantly shorter than those reported for decomposition-based heuristics in the literature.     

A multi-depot period vehicle routing problem arising in the utilities sector

This paper considers the resource planning problem of a utility company that provides preventive maintenance services to a set of customers using a fleet of depot-based mobile gangs. The problem is to determine the boundaries of the geographic areas served by each depot, the list of customers visited each day and the routes followed by the gangs. The objective is to provide improved customer service at minimum operating cost subject to constraints on frequency of visits, service time requirements, customer preferences for visiting on particular days and other routing constraints. The problem is solved as a Multi-Depot Period Vehicle Routing Problem (MDPVRP). The computational implementation of the complete planning model is described with reference to a pilot study and results are presented. The solution algorithm is used to construct cost-service trade-off curves for all depots so that management can evaluate the impact of different customer service levels on total routing costs.     

A new exact algorithm for the vehicle routing problem based onq-paths andk-shortest paths relaxations

We consider the basic Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) in which a fleet ofM identical vehicles stationed at a central depot is to be optimally routed to supply customers with known demands subject only to vehicle capacity constraints. In this paper, we present an exact algorithm for solving the VRP that uses lower bounds obtained from a combination of two relaxations of the original problem which are based on the computation ofq-paths andk-shortest paths. A set of reduction tests derived from the computation of these bounds is applied to reduce the size of the problem and to improve the quality of the bounds. The resulting lower bounds are then embedded into a tree-search procedure to solve the problem optimally. Computational results are presented for a number of problems taken from the literature. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in solving problems involving up to about 50 customers and in providing tight lower bounds for problems up to about 150 customers.     

A tabu search algorithm for the periodic vehicle routing problem with multiple vehicle trips and accessibility restrictions

In this paper, we consider a periodic vehicle routing problem that includes, in addition to the classical constraints, the possibility of a vehicle doing more than one route per day, as long as the maximum daily operation time for the vehicle is not exceeded. In addition, some constraints relating to accessibility of the vehicles to the customers, in the sense that not every vehicle can visit every customer, must be observed. We refer to the problem we consider here as the site-dependent multi-trip periodic vehicle routing problem. An algorithm based on tabu search is presented for the problem and computational results presented on randomly generated test problems that are made publicly available. Our algorithm is also tested on a number of routing problems from the literature that constitute particular cases of the proposed problem. Specifically we consider the periodic vehicle routing problem; the site-dependent vehicle routing problem; the multi-trip vehicle routing problem; and the classical vehicle routing problem. Computational results for our tabu search algorithm on test problems taken from the literature for all of these problems are presented.     

A column generation algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with soft time windows

The Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows consists of computing a minimum cost set of routes for a fleet of vehicles of limited capacity visiting a given set of customers with known demand, with the additional constraint that each customer must be visited in a specified time window. We consider the case in which time window constraints are relaxed into “soft” constraints, that is penalty terms are added to the solution cost whenever a vehicle serves a customer outside of his time window. We present a branch-and-price algorithm which is the first exact optimization algorithm for this problem.     

Exact solution of the soft-clustered vehicle-routing problem

The soft-clustered vehicle-routing problem (SoftCluVRP) extends the classical capacitated vehicle-routing problem by one additional constraint: The customers are partitioned into clusters and feasible routes must respect the soft-cluster constraint, that is, all customers of the same cluster must be served by the same vehicle. In this article, we design and analyze different branch-and-price algorithms for the exact solution of the SoftCluVRP. The algorithms differ in the way the column-generation subproblem, a variant of the shortest-path problem with resource constraints (SPPRC), is solved. The standard approach for SPPRCs is based on dynamic-programming labeling algorithms. We show that even with all the recent acceleration techniques (e.g., partial pricing, bidirectional labeling, decremental state space relaxation) available for SPPRC labeling algorithms, the solution of the subproblem remains extremely difficult. The main contribution is the modeling and solution of the subproblem using a branch-and-cut algorithm. The conducted computational experiments prove that branch-and-price equipped with this integer programming-based approach outperforms sophisticated labeling-based algorithms by one order of magnitude. The largest SoftCluVRP instances solved to optimality have more than 400 customers or more than 50 clusters.     

An exact algorithm for a single-vehicle routing problem with time windows and multiple routes

This paper describes an exact algorithm for solving a problem where the same vehicle performs several routes to serve a set of customers with time windows. The motivation comes from the home delivery of perishable goods, where vehicle routes are short and must be combined to form a working day. A method based on an elementary shortest path algorithm with resource constraints is proposed to solve this problem. The method is divided into two phases: in the first phase, all non-dominated feasible routes are generated; in the second phase, some routes are selected and sequenced to form the vehicle workday. Computational results are reported on Euclidean problems derived from benchmark instances of the classical vehicle routing problem with time windows.     

A methodology to solve large-scale cooperative transportation planning problems

In this paper, we suggest a methodology to solve a cooperative transportation planning problem and to assess its performance. The problem is motivated by a real-world scenario found in the German food industry. Several manufacturers with same customers but complementary food products share their vehicle fleets to deliver their customers. After an appropriate decomposition of the entire problem into sub problems, we obtain a set of rich vehicle routing problems (VRPs) with time windows for the delivery of the orders, capacity constraints, maximum operating times for the vehicles, and outsourcing options. Each of the resulting sub problems is solved by a greedy heuristic that takes the distance of the locations of customers and the time window constraints into account. The greedy heuristic is improved by an appropriate Ant Colony System (ACS). The suggested heuristics to solve the problem are assessed within a dynamic and stochastic environment in a rolling horizon setting using discrete event simulation. We describe the used simulation infrastructure. The results of extensive simulation experiments based on randomly generated problem instances and scenarios are provided and discussed. We show that the cooperative setting outperforms the non-cooperative one.     

有时间窗的车辆路径问题的局部下降搜索算法

介绍了一个求解有时间窗的车辆路径问题(vehicle routing problem with time windows,VRPTW)的启发式算法——基于λ-交换的局部下降搜索算法(Local search descent method based on λ-interchange).VRPTW是指合理安排车辆行驶路线,为一组预先设定有时间限制的客户运送货物,在不违反时间要求和车辆容量限制的条件下使得成本最小.它是一个典型的NP-难题,可以通过启发式算法获得近优解来解决.通过两个实验验证,显示了局部下降搜索算法的优良性能,取得了很好的效果,可以作为进一步研究复杂算法的基础.     

Computer Scheduling of Vehicles from One or More Depots to a Number of Delivery Points

The problem of scheduling delivery vehicles from a number of depots to customers, subject to constraints on load and distance or time, is considered. A new algorithm is presented; this allows routes from several depots to be constructed simultaneously, subject to restrictions on numbers of vehicles at individual depots. Where too many customers require service, a flexible priority rule will select those to be served. Results for the single depot case are compared with other known algorithms; further results are given and discussed for cases of several depots.     

一种部分约束满足车辆路线问题及其求解算法

描述了一类过度约束车辆路线问题，其中可用车辆数较少而时间窗口等其它约束又不允许放松，因而导致不存在满足所有约束的可行解。此时问题求解可以转化为一类部分约束满足问题来处理，相应的优化目标是最小化未访问顾客的损失和。本给出了求解这类特殊问题的一种禁忌搜索算法设计，并通过规模不同的几个算例与其它常用方法进行了比较。最后分析了模型和算法的实用意义。     

A Multiple-criteria Approach to Dynamic Cold-ingot Substitution

Bethlehem Steel's plant at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania uses a computer-based mill-providing procedure to plan ingot requirements for the production of structural shapes and pilings. When not enough hot steel is available to meet all the ingot requirements, cold steel ingots from inventory must be substituted in order to meet the production plan. A computer system was developed that dynamically selects cold ingots to use when hot steel is not available. This system selects cold ingots based first on ingot-selection priorities, and secondly, within priorities, on several criteria. An approach was developed that assigns a penalty to each feasible cold ingot such that the priorities and multiple criteria are addressed by simply ranking the ingots based on their penalty values. Ingots are selected from the top of the ranked list, and the results are consistently acceptable to the steel-providers at the Bethlehem plant. The system improves yield and reduces material-handling costs.     

Local reduction based SQP-type method for semi-infinite programs with an infinite number of second-order cone constraints

The second-order cone program (SOCP) is an optimization problem with second-order cone (SOC) constraints and has achieved notable developments in the last decade. The classical semi-infinite program (SIP) is represented with infinitely many inequality constraints, and has been studied extensively so far. In this paper, we consider the SIP with infinitely many SOC constraints, called the SISOCP for short. Compared with the standard SIP and SOCP, the studies on the SISOCP are scarce, even though it has important applications such as Chebychev approximation for vector-valued functions. For solving the SISOCP, we develop an algorithm that combines a local reduction method with an SQP-type method. In this method, we reduce the SISOCP to an SOCP with finitely many SOC constraints by means of implicit functions and apply an SQP-type method to the latter problem. We study the global and local convergence properties of the proposed algorithm. Finally, we observe the effectiveness of the algorithm through some numerical experiments.     

Optimization of passive optical network planning

Network planning problem typically involves large capital investment and can be formulated as an optimization problem where the objective is minimization of the first installed cost. We consider a passive optical network (PON) planning problem based on a residential area in Adana (Turkey). There are four possible primary node locations, twenty possible secondary node locations, and twenty-eight customers. We use genetic algorithm and mathematical modeling techniques to optimize the position of the primary and secondary nodes, their split levels and assigning customers to secondary nodes and secondary nodes to primary nodes under some constraints such as system’s attenuations and technical characteristics of all the equipment.     

A new bilevel formulation for the vehicle routing problem and a solution method using a genetic algorithm

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is one of the most well studied problems in operations research, both in real life problems and for scientific research purposes. During the last 50 years a number of different formulations have been proposed, together with an even greater number of algorithms for the solution of the problem. In this paper, the VRP is formulated as a problem of two decision levels. In the first level, the decision maker assigns customers to the vehicles checking the feasibility of the constructed routes (vehicle capacity constraints) and without taking into account the sequence by which the vehicles will visit the customers. In the second level, the decision maker finds the optimal routes of these assignments. The decision maker of the first level, once the cost of each routing has been calculated in the second level, estimates which assignment is the better one to choose. Based on this formulation, a bilevel genetic algorithm is proposed. In the first level of the proposed algorithm, a genetic algorithm is used for calculating the population of the most promising assignments of customers to vehicles. In the second level of the proposed algorithm, a Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is solved, independently for each member of the population and for each assignment to vehicles. The algorithm was tested on two sets of benchmark instances and gave very satisfactory results. In both sets of instances the average quality is less than 1%. More specifically in the set with the 14 classic instances proposed by Christofides, the quality is 0.479% and in the second set with the 20 large scale vehicle routing problems, the quality is 0.826%. The algorithm is ranked in the tenth place among the 36 most known and effective algorithms in the literature for the first set of instances and in the sixth place among the 16 algorithms for the second set of instances. The computational time of the algorithm is decreased significantly compared to other heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms due to the fact that the Expanding Neighborhood Search Strategy is used.     

智能制造环境下的备件生产与运输协同调度问题研究

智能制造和即时配送环境下的备件生产与运输协同调度问题是目前国内研究的一大热点,这是因为备件供应链响应速度已成为当前备件制造企业赢得客户的关键因素。为了提高客户满意度,尽可能缩短从客户下达定制化生产订单到订单配送完成的时间,本文建立了以所有客户总等待时间最短为目标的混合整数规划模型和集合覆盖模型,推导了最优解性质,并设计改进的分支定价算法求得最优解。通过将小规模算例结果与CPLEX进行对比,验证了模型和算法的有效性。多组算例测试结果表明,所提出的模型和算法可以有效提升智能制造环境下的备件供应链运作效率。