A SIMULATION-BASED METHODOLOGY TO ASSIST DECISION-MAKERS IN REAL VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEMS

Angel A. Juan, Daniel Riera, David Masip, Josep Jorba, Javier Faulin

2009

Abstract

The aim of this work is to present a simulation-based algorithm that not only provides a competitive solution for instances of the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP), but is also able to efficiently generate a full database of alternative good solutions with different characteristics. These characteristics are related to solution’s properties such as routes’ attractiveness, load balancing, non-tangible costs, fuzzy preferences, etc. This double-goal approach can be specially interesting for the decision-maker, since he/she can make use of this algorithm to construct a database of solutions and then send queries to it in order to obtain those feasible solutions that better fit his/her utility function without incurring in a severe increase in costs. In order to provide high-quality solutions, our algorithm combines a CVRP classical heuristic, the Clarke and Wright Savings method, with Monte Carlo simulation using state-of-the-art random number generators. The resulting algorithm is tested against some well known benchmarks and the results obtained so far are promising enough to encourage future developments and improvements on the algorithm and its applications in real-life scenarios.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

A. Juan A., Riera D., Masip D., Jorba J. and Faulin J. (2009). A SIMULATION-BASED METHODOLOGY TO ASSIST DECISION-MAKERS IN REAL VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEMS . In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 2: ICEIS, ISBN 978-989-8111-85-2, pages 212-217. DOI: 10.5220/0002005602120217

in Bibtex Style

@conference{iceis09,
author={Angel A. Juan and Daniel Riera and David Masip and Josep Jorba and Javier Faulin},
title={A SIMULATION-BASED METHODOLOGY TO ASSIST DECISION-MAKERS IN REAL VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEMS},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 2: ICEIS,},
year={2009},
pages={212-217},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0002005602120217},
isbn={978-989-8111-85-2},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 2: ICEIS,
TI - A SIMULATION-BASED METHODOLOGY TO ASSIST DECISION-MAKERS IN REAL VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEMS
SN - 978-989-8111-85-2
AU - A. Juan A.
AU - Riera D.
AU - Masip D.
AU - Jorba J.
AU - Faulin J.
PY - 2009
SP - 212
EP - 217
DO - 10.5220/0002005602120217