| Article ID: | iaor2002748 |
| Country: | Spain |
| Volume: | 8 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Start Page Number: | 57 |
| End Page Number: | 72 |
| Publication Date: | Jan 2000 |
| Journal: | TOP |
| Authors: | Sanchis J.M., Crdoba P. Fdez. de, Garca-Raffi L.M., Mayado A. |
In this paper we use Monte Carlo techniques to deal with a real world delivery problem of a food company in Valencia (Spain). The problem is modeled as a set of 11 instances of the well known Vehicle Routing Problem, VRP, with additional time constraints. Given that VRP is an NP-hard problem, a heuristic algorithm, based on Monte Carlo techniques, is implemented. The solution proposed by this heuristic algorithm reaches distance and money savings of about 20% and 5% respectively.