Article ID: | iaor2003974 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 53 |
Issue: | 8 |
Start Page Number: | 842 |
End Page Number: | 854 |
Publication Date: | Aug 2002 |
Journal: | Journal of the Operational Research Society |
Authors: | Ioannou G., Kritikos M.N., Prastacos G.P. |
Keywords: | geographical information systems |
This paper presents a Decision Support System (DSS) that enables dispatchers–schedulers to approach intra-city vehicle routing problems with time windows interactively, using appropriate computational methods and exploiting a custom knowledge base that contains information about traffic and spatial data. The DSS, named Map-Route, generates routes that satisfy time and vehicle capacity constraints. Its computational engine is based on an effective heuristic method for solving the underlying optimization problem, while its implementation is developed using MapInfo, a popular Geographical Information System platform. Map-Route provides very efficient solutions, is particularly user-friendly, and can reach answers for a wide variety of ‘what if’ scenarios with potentially significant cost implications. We have implemented Map-Route in an actual industrial environment and we report on the experience gained from this real-life application.