We propose and analyze a heuristic that uses region partitioning and an aggregation scheme for customer attributes (load size, time windows, etc.) to create a finite number of customer types. A math program is solved based on these aggregated customer types to generate a feasible solution to the...

In a recent paper, Anily and Federgruen developed a methodology for assigning retailers to vehicle tours, with the objective of minimizing long-run average transportation and inventory costs. This comment demonstrates that coordinating deliveries among tours can reduce cost over their solution.

The bounds on direct shipping cost developed by Gallego and Simchi-Levi are used in this note to demonstrate that it is difficult to rule out multiple stop inventory-routing strategies, even when the optimal shipment size for direct shipping is a full vehicle.

Generically, ejection chains are methods conceived to allow solution transformations to be efficiently carried out by modifying a variable number of their components at each step of a local search algorithm. We consider a subpath ejection chain method for the vehicle routing problem (VRP) under...

No abstract available.

We consider the problem of integrating inventory control and vehicle routing into a cost-effective strategy for a distribution system consisting of a single outside vendor, a fixed number of warehouses and many geographically dispersed retailers. Each retailer faces a constant, retailer...

We develop an analytical model to assist the design and control of probabilistic distribution systems. These distribution systems are characterized by the explicit inclusion of probabilistic elements. The probabilistic aspect considered is that only a subset of all potential customers needs...

We consider the problem of integrating inventory control and vehicle routing into a cost-effective strategy for a distribution system consisting of one depot and many geographically dispersed retailers. All stock enters the system through the depot and is distributed to the retailers by vehicles...

We propose an evolutionary metaheuristic for multiobjective combinatorial optimization problems that interacts with the decision maker (DM) to guide the search effort toward his or her preferred solutions. Solutions are presented to the DM, whose pairwise comparisons are then used to estimate...