Optimization of Vehicle Routing in Simultaneous Pickup and Delivery Service: A Case study

Abstract

In this case study, considered the vehicle routing problem with pickup and delivery which is a generalization of the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). The vehicle routing problem with pickup and delivery (VRPPD) arises whenever pickup demand and delivery demand is to be satisfied by the same vehicle. The problem is encountered in many real life situations. In this paper problem arises from the distribution of beverages and collection of recyclable containers. It can be modeled as a variant of the vehicle routing problem with a heterogeneous vehicle fleet, capacity and volume constraints, and an objective function combining routing distance or minimizing the total travel distance to serve customers located to different locations. Three construction heuristics and an improvement procedure are developed for the problem and designing a set of routes with minimum cost to serve a delivery of beverages and a collection of recyclable material with a fleet of vehicles. The aim of this paper is to develop a vehicle routing Problem (VRP) model that addresses simultaneous pickup and delivery in the beverage distribution. To this effect, a mathematical model is adopted and fitted with real data collected from MOHA Soft drinks Summit Plant located in Ethiopia, and solved using Clark-Wright saving algorithm. The form-to-distance is computed from the data collected from Google Earth and the customer’s data from the MOHA. The findings of the study show that the model is feasible and showed an improvement as compared to the current performances of the plant with respect to product distribution and collection and the total distance covered is minimized about 27.79%. The average performances of the model show that on average 5 routes are required to serve customers’ demands.