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Variable neighborhood search based algorithms to solve a rich k-travelling repairmen problem

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Abstract

In this paper, we consider a Rich k-travelling repairmen problem (R-k-TRP), motivated by an application for the maintenance and repair of electronic transaction equipment. It consists of designing routes of polyvalent repairmen to perform customers requests. The objective is to minimize a linear combination of total weighted travelled distance, breaks and overtime, minus gain associated with performed requests, under a set of constraints such as multiple time windows, parts inventory, breaks, and special parts. A benchmark of small and medium instances are considered from literature and new larger instances are generated. A Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) and a General Variable Neighborhood Search algorithms (GVNS), both coupled with a technique called Adaptive memory (AM), are proposed to address this problem. The computational results show the effectiveness and efficiency of the GVNS with AM for solving the R-k-TRP, in comparison with other provided VNS algorithms and the current state of the art Branch and Price method.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Modeling and Optimization for Decisional, Industrial and Logistic Systems, Faculty of Economics and Management of Sfax, University of Sfax, 3018, Sfax, Tunisia

    Sana Frifita & Abdelaziz Dammak

  2. Department of Computer Science and Operations Research, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Ines Mathlouthi

  3. Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, University of Lyon, University of Jean Monnet Saint Etienne, 42000, Saint-Etienne, France

    Malek Masmoudi

Authors
  1. Sana Frifita
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  2. Ines Mathlouthi
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  3. Malek Masmoudi
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  4. Abdelaziz Dammak
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Correspondence to Sana Frifita.

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Frifita, S., Mathlouthi, I., Masmoudi, M. et al. Variable neighborhood search based algorithms to solve a rich k-travelling repairmen problem. Optim Lett 14, 2285–2299 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11590-020-01551-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11590-020-01551-w

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