Article ID: | iaor2009328 |
Country: | Netherlands |
Volume: | 179 |
Issue: | 3 |
Start Page Number: | 806 |
End Page Number: | 822 |
Publication Date: | Jun 2007 |
Journal: | European Journal of Operational Research |
Authors: | Kiranoudis C.T., Tarantilis C.D. |
Keywords: | heuristics, agriculture & food, construction & architecture, transportation: road |
Effective routing of vehicles remains a focal goal of all modern enterprises, thriving for excellence in project management with minimal investment and operational costs. This paper proposes a metaheuristic methodology for solving a practical variant of the well-known Vehicle Routing Problem, called Heterogeneous Fixed Fleet VRP (HFFVRP). Using a two-phase construction heuristic, called GEneralized ROute Construction Algorithm (GEROCA), the proposed metaheuristic approach enhances its flexibility to easily adopt various operational constraints. Via this approach, two real-life distribution problems faced by a dairy and a construction company were tackled and formulated as HFFVRP.