Supporting 3PL decisions in the automotive industry by generating diverse solutions to a large-scale location-routing problem

For the distribution of spare parts to car dealers, many automotive companies use a transport network of intermediate hubs or transport platforms, operated by a set of third-party logistics (3PL) partners. The optimization of this network, particularly the selection of 3PL providers and corresponding transport platforms, is a complex decision that needs to be supported by appropriate software tools. In this paper, we develop such a tool, implement it, and show its results on a real-life case study provided by Toyota. The tool is currently in active use at Toyota to study and improve the distribution of spare parts in Germany.