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A decomposition approach for commodity pickup and delivery with time-windows under uncertainty

Journal of Scheduling volume 17, pages 489–506 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

We consider a special class of large-scale, network-based, resource allocation problems under uncertainty, namely that of multi-commodity flows with time-windows under uncertainty. In this class, we focus on problems involving commodity pickup and delivery with time-windows. Our work examines methods of proactive planning, that is, robust plan generation to protect against future uncertainty. By a priori modeling uncertainties in data corresponding to service times, resource availability, supplies and demands, we generate solutions that are more robust operationally, that is, more likely to be executed or easier to repair when disrupted. We propose a novel modeling and solution framework involving a decomposition scheme that separates problems into a routing master problem and Scheduling Sub-Problems; and iterates to find the optimal solution. Uncertainty is captured in part by the master problem and in part by the Scheduling Sub-Problem. We present proof-of-concept for our approach using real data involving routing and scheduling for a large shipment carrier’s ground network, and demonstrate the improved robustness of solutions from our approach.

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Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank the anonymous reviewers for their time in reading our paper and for their valuable comments and suggestions, which significantly contributed to improving the quality of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Lavanya Marla

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Operations Research Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Cynthia Barnhart

  3. Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Varun Biyani

Authors
  1. Lavanya Marla
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  2. Cynthia Barnhart
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  3. Varun Biyani
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Correspondence to Lavanya Marla.

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Marla, L., Barnhart, C. & Biyani, V. A decomposition approach for commodity pickup and delivery with time-windows under uncertainty. J Sched 17, 489–506 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10951-013-0317-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10951-013-0317-1

Keywords

  • Robust routing and scheduling
  • Multi-commodity routing and scheduling
  • Uncertainty
  • Decomposition