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A branch-cut-and-price algorithm for the generalized vehicle routing problem

  • Published:
Journal of the Operational Research Society

Abstract

We develop a branch-cut-and-price algorithm for the generalized vehicle routing problem (GVRP)—a variant of the vehicle routing problem where customers are partitioned into mutually exclusive clusters. The decision-maker seeks to determine minimum cost routes using a limited number of vehicles such that every cluster is visited by exactly one route, and within any cluster a single customer is visited, subject to vehicle capacity constraints. The pricing subproblem is solved using a specialized dynamic programming algorithm. Computational results show that the proposed algorithm compares favorably against a state-of-the-art branch-and-cut algorithm and solves to optimality eight previously open GVRP instances in the literature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Operations and Information Management, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Mohammad Reihaneh & Ahmed Ghoniem

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  1. Mohammad Reihaneh
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  2. Ahmed Ghoniem
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Correspondence to Ahmed Ghoniem.

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Reihaneh, M., Ghoniem, A. A branch-cut-and-price algorithm for the generalized vehicle routing problem. J Oper Res Soc (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41274-017-0231-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41274-017-0231-6

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