 Ant colony optimisation-based heuristic for a location-routing problem: a case study in parcel delivery servicesVinay V. Panicker and R. Sridharan International Journal of Data Science, 2016, vol. 1, issue 3, 276-297 Abstract: This work focuses on solving a practical case of location-routing problem (LRP) in parcel delivery services. The work intends to determine a set of depots to be opened and design the distribution routes for a parcel delivery firm. The problem is constrained by the capacity of depots and the total delivery time available on the vehicle. Moreover, there is a homogenous fleet of vehicles visiting each customer just once, delivering their parcel(s). The objective is to minimise the total cost incurred while delivering the parcels. An ant colony optimisation (ACO)-based heuristic is proposed to solve the practical application of LRP. A computational study under three operational policies has been carried out to confirm the potentialities of the proposed heuristic in solving the problem. A comparative analysis between the solutions obtained using the proposed heuristic and the present solution adopted by the firm demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed heuristic. Keywords: ACO; ant colony optimisation; LRP; location routing problem; logistics; case study; parcel delivery services; heuristics; depots; distribution routes; depot capacity; total delivery time; efficiency. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijdsci:v:1:y:2016:i:3:p:276-297 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Data Science from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
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