Article ID: | iaor2006381 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 41 |
Issue: | 2 |
Start Page Number: | 115 |
End Page Number: | 130 |
Publication Date: | Mar 2005 |
Journal: | Transportation Research. Part E, Logistics and Transportation Review |
Authors: | Whitehouse Gary E., Moraga Reinaldo J., DePuy Gail W. |
Keywords: | heuristics |
This paper investigates the development and application of a general meta-heuristic, Meta-RaPS (meta-heuristic for randomized priority search), to the traveling salesman problem (TSP). The Meta-RaPS approach is tested on several established tests sets. The Meta-RaPS approach outperformed most other solution methodologies in terms of percent difference from optimal. Additionally, an industry case study that incorporates Meta-RaPS TSP in a large truck route assignment model is presented. The company estimates a more than 50% reduction in engineering time and over $2.5 million annual savings in transportation costs using the automated Meta-RaPS TSP tool compared to their current method.