Title
A Decomposition Approach to the Inventory Routing Problem with Satellite Facilities
Abstract
This paper presents a comprehensive decomposition scheme for solving the inventory routing problem in which a central supplier must restock a subset of customers on an intermittent basis. In this setting, the customer demand is not known with certainty and routing decisions taken over the short run might conflict with the long-run goal of minimizing annual operating costs. A unique aspect of the short-run subproblem is the presence of satellite facilities where vehicles can be reloaded and customer deliveries continued until the closing time is reached. Three heuristics have been developed to solve the vehicle routing problem with satellite facilities (randomized Clarke-Wright, GRASP, modified sweep). After the daily tours are derived, a parametric analysis is conducted to investigate the tradeoff between distance and annual costs. This leads to the development of the efficient frontier from which the decision maker is free to choose the most attractive alternative. The proposed procedures are tested on data sets generated from field experience with a national liquid propane distributor.
Year
DOI
Venue
1998
10.1287/trsc.32.2.189
Transportation Science
Keywords
Field
DocType
satellite facility,customer demand,customer delivery,closing time,attractive alternative,annual cost,satellite facilities,central supplier,decomposition approach,daily tour,inventory routing problem,comprehensive decomposition scheme,annual operating cost,satellite communication,decomposition,customers,routing,parametric analysis,inventory
Vehicle routing problem,Mathematical optimization,Satellite,GRASP,Short run,Operations research,Efficient frontier,Heuristics,Communications satellite,Operating cost,Operations management,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
32
2
0041-1655
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
44
3.65
14
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jonathan F. Bard11428144.29
Liu Huang2755.97
Patrick Jaillet3989110.26
Moshe Dror457464.77