A heuristic algorithm for the multi-trip vehicle routing problem with time windows

시간제약을 가진 다회방문 차량경로문제에 대한 휴리스틱 알고리즘

This paper is concerned with a novel heuristic algorithm for the multi-trip vehicle routing problem with time windows. The objective function is the minimization of total vehicle operating time, fixed cost of vehicle and the minimization of total lateness of customer. A mixed integer programming formulation and a heuristic algorithm for a practical use are suggested. A heuristic algorithm is constructed two phases such as clustering and routing. Clustering is progressed in order to assign appropriate vehicle to customer, and then vehicle trip and route are decided considering traveling distance and time window. It is shown that the suggested heuristic algorithm gives good solutions within a short computation time by experimental result.