scholarly journals New solution procedures for the order picker routing problem in U-shaped pick areas with a movable depot

OR Spectrum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heiko Diefenbach ◽  
Simon Emde ◽  
Christoph H. Glock ◽  
Eric H. Grosse
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Programming ◽  
Benders Decomposition ◽  
Computational Study ◽  
Programming Approach ◽  
Routing Problem ◽  
Solution Approach ◽  
Dynamic Programming Approach ◽  
Storage Assignment ◽  
Sweep Algorithm ◽  
Optimality Gap

AbstractThis paper develops new solution procedures for the order picker routing problem in U-shaped order picking zones with a movable depot, which has so far only been solved using simple heuristics. The paper presents the first exact solution approach, based on combinatorial Benders decomposition, as well as a heuristic approach based on dynamic programming that extends the idea of the venerable sweep algorithm. In a computational study, we demonstrate that the exact approach can solve small instances well, while the heuristic dynamic programming approach is fast and exhibits an average optimality gap close to zero in all test instances. Moreover, we investigate the influence of various storage assignment policies from the literature and compare them to a newly derived policy that is shown to be advantageous under certain circumstances. Secondly, we investigate the effects of having a movable depot compared to a fixed one and the influence of the effort to move the depot.

scholarly journals A heuristic approach for green vehicle routing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
MEHMET SOYSAL ◽  
Mustafa Çimen ◽  
Çağrı Sel ◽  
Sedat Belbağ
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Programming ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Vehicle Routing ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Programming Approach ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Routing Problem ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Solution Approach ◽  
Sustainable Logistics

This paper addresses a green capacitated vehicle routing problem that accounts for transportation emissions. A Dynamic Programming approach has been used to formulate the problem. Although small-sized problems can be solved by Dynamic Programming, this approach is infeasible for larger problems due to the curse of dimensionality. Therefore, we propose a Dynamic Programming based solution approach that involves the ideas of restriction, simulation and online control of parameters to solve large-sized problems. The added values of the proposed decision support tool have been shown on a small-sized base case and relatively larger problems. Performance comparisons of the proposed heuristic against other existing Dynamic Programming based solution approaches reveal its effectiveness, as in most of the instance-setting pairs, the proposed heuristic outperforms the existing ones. Accordingly, the proposed heuristic can be used as an alternative decision support tool to tackle real routing problems confronted in sustainable logistics management.

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