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Routing relatively few customers per route

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Abstract

This paper presents a modification of the well-known Solomon (1987) sequential insertion heuristic I1 for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW). VRPTW involves servicing customers within a pre-specified service time window by homogeneously capacitated vehicles from a single depot. By using two new measures for the additional time needed to insert a customer in the route, significantly better solutions are obtained for relatively short routes compared to the original Solomon (1987) sequential insertion heuristic I1. Because high-quality initial heuristics often allow local searches and metaheuristics to achieve better solutions more quickly, the new approach is likely to help generating better solutions to practical routing problems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ufsia-Ruca Faculty of Applied Economics, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, 2000, Antwerp, Belgium

    Wout Dullaert

  2. Department of Optimisation, SINTEF Applied Mathematics, P.O. Box 124 Blindern, N-0314, Oslo, Norway

    Olli Bräysy

Authors
  1. Wout Dullaert
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  2. Olli Bräysy
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Dullaert, W., Bräysy, O. Routing relatively few customers per route. Top 11, 325–336 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02579048

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02579048

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