Abstract
In this paper we use the protean philosophy to deploy refuse vehicles for solid waste collection in a city where the waste collection fleet is old and the number of vehicles is often not sufficient to meet the demand of the day. The usual practice in the past has been to assign one truck to one region but often is the case that the number of operational vehicles may not be sufficient to serve each region by a separate vehicle. We consider a case when the amount of refuse to be removed on a particular day cannot be serviced by the existing operational fleet of vehicle in performing one trip. As such some or all vehicles need to do more than a single trip to clear the volume of refuse available on that day. A heuristic approach is proposed to deal with such a situation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
G. ABDALLAOUI, Maintainability of a Grade Structure as a Transportation Problem, Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 38 pp. 367–368, 1987.
T. ABE AND H. SAITO, Traffic Forecasting Using State Space Model, Operational Research 1987, Elsevier Science Publichers, North-Holland, INFORs, pp. 745–758, 1988.
H. ARORA, Analysis of some Ranked Optimization Problems and their Extensions to the Protean Networks, PhD thesis, RMIT, Melbourne, 1994.
S.P. BANSAL AND S. KUMAR, Maximum Reliability Route Subject to K Improvements in a Directed Network, IEEE Transaction on Reliability, Vol. R-26, pp. 103–105, 1977.
R. Bappoo and S. Kumar, Vehicle Routing for Municipal Waste Collection — A Case Study, Paper presented at the Fifth Symposium on Science and Technology: Towards Capacity Building in Science and Technology, Research Council of Zimbabwe, Harare, pp. 37, Abstract 3.24, 1996.
R. BAPPOO, Some Strategies to Reduce Operational Cost in Solid Waste Collection: A Protean Modelling and Analysis Approach, MPhil thesis, NUST, Bulawayo, 1997.
R. BAPPOO AND S. KUMAR, Some Heuristic Strategies for Routing and Scheduling of refuse Vehicles, ASOR Bulletin, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 2–8, December 1997.
B. GODEN, J. S. DE ARMON AND E.K. BAKER, Computational Experiments with Algorithms for a Class of Routing Problems, Comput. & Ops. Res. Vol. 10 (1), pp. 47–59, 1983.
R. KALYAN, An Analysis of Protean Systems and Solution Methods for their Optimisation, MappSc thesis, RMIT, Melbourne, 1989.
R. KALYAN AND S. KUMAR, System Relaxation and an Assignment Problem, Indian Journal of Management and Systems, Vol. 3(1), pp. 11–17, 1987 (a).
R. KALYAN AND S. KUMAR, Modelling and Analysis of Augmenting Systems—An Allocation Problem, ASOR′87, Proc. Of the 8th National Conference of the Australian Society of Operations Research, Melbourne, pp. 126–136, 1987(b).
R. KALYAN AND S. KUMAR, Problems in Protean Systems — Computer Programs for some Solution Methods. A Chapter in “recent Developments in Mathematical Programming”, (Ed.) S. Kumar, Gordon and Breach Publishers, pp. 263–272, 1991(a).
R. KALYAN AND S. KUMAR, A Study of Protean Systems — Some Heuristics Strategies for Redundancy Optimization, A Chapter in “Recent Developments in Mathematical Programming”, (Ed.) S. Kumar, Gordon and Breach Publishers, pp. 181–197, 1991(b).
S. KUMAR, Optimization of Protean Systems: A Review, Apors 1994 (Eds) M. Fushimi and K. Tone, World Scientific Publishers, pp. 139–146, 1995.
S. KUMAR, AND H. ARORA, Shortest Paths and Shortest Connected Graphs in a Protean Network, A Chapter in the book “Operations Research — Theory and Practice”, (Eds) P.K. Kapur and V.K. Schgal, Spaniel Publishers, New Delhi, pp. 125–135, 1995(a).
S. KUMAR AND H. ARORA, K Shortest Paths and Paths through R-Speicfied Edges in a Protean Network, ASOR Bulletin, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 3–8, June, 1995(b).
S. KUMAR, H. ARORA AND C. CHIERA, Stenier Tress in Protean Networks, A chapter in Opeations Research and Applications, (Eds) Ding-Zhu Du, Xiangsun Zhang and Kan Cheng, Lecure Notes Series in Operations Research, World Publishing Co., Beijing, China, pp. 221, 1995.
S. KUMAR AND R. BAPPOO, Shortest Routes in Protean Networks, A Chapter in Operations Research and Applications, (Eds) Ding-zhu Du, Xing Zhang and Kan Cheng, Lecture Notes Series in Operations Research, World Publishing Co., Bejing, China, pp. 228–237, 1995.
S. KUMAR, P. ZEEPHONGSEKUL AND S. BALASUBRAMANIAN, Modelling and Analysis of a Software System with Improvements in the Testing Phase, Mathematical and Comput. Modellilng, Vol. 22, pp. 183–191, 1995.
J. OTHAGER AND B. RAP, Setup Reduction in Production Systems: Review and Extensions, Operational Research’ 877777, Elsevier Science Publishers, North-Holland, INFORS, pp. 258–275, 1998.
J. A. SVESTKA AND V.E. HUCKFELDT, Computational Experience with an Msalesman Travelling Salesman Algorithm, Management Science, Vol. 19, pp. 790–799, 1973.
E. WESFRIED, Dynamic Behavior of N-Stage Transfer Lines With Unreliable Machines and Finite Buffers, Institute National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, Proget Saget, pp. 227–233, 1986.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kumar, S., Bappoo, R. Deployment of Refuse Vehicles in a Protean Environment. OPSEARCH 36, 242–259 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03398579
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03398579