This paper discusses the use of probabilistic or randomized algorithms for solving vehicle routing problems with non-smooth objective functions. Our approach employs non-uniform probability distributions to add a biased random behavior to the well-known savings heuristic. By doing so, a large...

In recent years, much attention and many papers have been devoted to general heuristics techniques, known as metaheuristics, that are applicable, in particular, to solve hard combinatorial optimization problems. There are a huge amount of combinatorial optimization problems in all sectors of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a problem-based learning (PBL) activity that uses a decision support system (DSS) to teach one of the most fundamental topics in distribution planning: vehicle routing. Design/methodology/approach – The authors describe their teaching...