Metaheuristic for solving routing problem in logistics management

Multi Depot Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (MDVRPTW) is one of the major logistics problems. In this paper a two phase heuristics is proposed in which the customers are assigned to the depot in the first phase. The routes are constructed with modified ant colony optimisation procedure and are improved using 2-Opt procedure in phase two. The proposed heuristic has been applied to Cordeau MDVRPTW benchmark problems. It is found that the proposed heuristic gives promising and better results, on an average, as compared to those solutions given by the existing heuristic for the MDVRPTW.