Article ID: | iaor200473 |
Country: | United States |
Volume: | 36 |
Issue: | 3 |
Start Page Number: | 292 |
End Page Number: | 300 |
Publication Date: | Aug 2002 |
Journal: | Trans Science |
Authors: | Bard Jonathan F., Dror Moshe, Jaillet Patrick, Huang Liu |
Keywords: | vehicle routing & scheduling |
The inventory routing problem considered in this paper is concerned with the repeated distribution of a commodity, such as heating oil, over a long period of time to a large number of customers. The problem involves a central depot as well as various satellite facilities which the drivers can visit during their shift to refill their vehicles. The customers maintain a local inventory of the commodity. Their consumption varies daily and cannot be predicted deterministically. In case of a stockout, a direct delivery is made and a penalty cost is incurred. In this paper, we present incremental cost approximations to be used in a rolling horizon framework for the problem of minimizing the total expected annual delivery costs.