M
mario_kh
Hello Everyone,
I am working on a vrp routing problem for a distribution company and i would like to take your advice on the subject.
Part of the problem is that a distribution company has over 40 distribution points, and over 600 customer points with rendomized demand. Some days the customer point would need merchandise others it wont. The actual situation, the virtual company at hand has set a fixed routing schedule with 11 vans and 5 motorcycles with two sets of capacities respectively. For remote areas with low demand, the delivery van delivers once/week or once every 2 weeks depending on the demand, and the frequency of the visit increases with the increase of demand and closeness of the area to the center warehouse.
The aim of the company is to maximize coverage, be ready for a big increasing markets and orders, and optimize its routing schedules for the vans so they would know their current situation and create a better one.
After thorough research, i personally suggested a daily routing schedule to be set by the head of delivery every day based on daiy demand. Using something similar to the routing addin for excel. He could do it once every morning and plug in the numbers in the excel sheet and get an optimal route for the demand present on those customer and delivery points.
For me, this would 1. involve the head of the delivery guy in the routing process, (part of lean concept), 2. create the appropriate flexibility in order to be ready for randomized demand (whether inceasing or decreasing).
Another alternative is to create distribution points in remote areas, such that the big van gets to the delivery points and a motorcylce handles the customer delivery.
A third alternative is mixing both.
My question is that im not sure which alternative i should adopt, what are the research steps i should do, and what might be the best way to go in such a case, what softwares, addins, engineering tools might i use to build this. Another question is that do you think the excel addin can handle such a large number of points (between delivery nodes and customer nodes) ?
I am well acquainted with modelling using Arena and vensim system dynamics, but i think once i get close to basic suboptimal answers then i could use both softwares.
Looking forward to your views and reply on the subject.
Thank you in advance for your time and care.
I am working on a vrp routing problem for a distribution company and i would like to take your advice on the subject.
Part of the problem is that a distribution company has over 40 distribution points, and over 600 customer points with rendomized demand. Some days the customer point would need merchandise others it wont. The actual situation, the virtual company at hand has set a fixed routing schedule with 11 vans and 5 motorcycles with two sets of capacities respectively. For remote areas with low demand, the delivery van delivers once/week or once every 2 weeks depending on the demand, and the frequency of the visit increases with the increase of demand and closeness of the area to the center warehouse.
The aim of the company is to maximize coverage, be ready for a big increasing markets and orders, and optimize its routing schedules for the vans so they would know their current situation and create a better one.
After thorough research, i personally suggested a daily routing schedule to be set by the head of delivery every day based on daiy demand. Using something similar to the routing addin for excel. He could do it once every morning and plug in the numbers in the excel sheet and get an optimal route for the demand present on those customer and delivery points.
For me, this would 1. involve the head of the delivery guy in the routing process, (part of lean concept), 2. create the appropriate flexibility in order to be ready for randomized demand (whether inceasing or decreasing).
Another alternative is to create distribution points in remote areas, such that the big van gets to the delivery points and a motorcylce handles the customer delivery.
A third alternative is mixing both.
My question is that im not sure which alternative i should adopt, what are the research steps i should do, and what might be the best way to go in such a case, what softwares, addins, engineering tools might i use to build this. Another question is that do you think the excel addin can handle such a large number of points (between delivery nodes and customer nodes) ?
I am well acquainted with modelling using Arena and vensim system dynamics, but i think once i get close to basic suboptimal answers then i could use both softwares.
Looking forward to your views and reply on the subject.
Thank you in advance for your time and care.
