OR Practice—Design and Implementation of an Interactive Optimization System for Network Design in the Motor Carrier Industry

Warren B. Powell and Yosef Sheffi
Additional contact information
Warren B. Powell: Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Yosef Sheffi: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Operations Research, 1989, vol. 37, issue 1, 12-29

Abstract: We describe the design and implementation of an interactive optimization system for routing freight over a less-than-truckload motor carrier network. We formulate a very large, mixed integer programming problem, and develop a decomposition strategy based partly on the mathematical structure of the problem as well as a range of important, real-world issues and constraints. Then we develop and implement a local improvement heuristic in such a way as to keep the “man-in-the-loop,” using the analyst to make judgments regarding certain complex constraints and tradeoffs. Important aspects of the system include a range of modeling approximations to keep the problem tractable and the way the analyst evaluates the quality of the different numbers. The package was implemented and is currently being used on an ongoing basis by a major motor carrier. An overview of the major elements of the package is given as well as a summary of important implementation issues that arose during the three year project.

Keywords: networks/graphs: interactive local improvement for network design; transportation: network planning for motor carriers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1989
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.37.1.12 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:oropre:v:37:y:1989:i:1:p:12-29

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Operations Research from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().