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Finished-vehicle transporter routing problem solved by loading pattern discovery

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Abstract

This work addresses a new transportation problem in outbound logistics in the automobile industry: the finished-vehicle transporter routing problem (FVTRP). The FVTRP is a practical routing problem with loading constraints, and it assumes that dealers have deterministic demands for finished vehicles that have three-dimensional irregular shapes. The problem solution will identify optimal routes while satisfying demands. In terms of complex packing, finished vehicles are not directly loaded into the spaces of transporters; instead, loading patterns matching finished vehicles with transporters are identified first by mining successful loading records through virtual and manual loading test procedures, such that the packing problem is practically solved with the help of a procedure to discover loading patterns. This work proposes a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model for the FVTRP considering loading patterns. As a special class of routing models, the FVTRP is typically difficult to solve within a manageable computing time. Thus, an evolutionary algorithm is designed to solve the FVTRP. Comparisons of the proposed algorithm and a commercial MILP solver demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is more effective in solving medium- and large-scale problems. The proposed scheme for addressing the FVTRP is illustrated with an example and tested with benchmark instances that are derived from well-studied vehicle routing datasets.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the editor and the anonymous referees for their constructive comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. The first, third, and fourth authors’ research was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71101088, 71471109, 71390521, 71171129), the Science Foundation of Education Ministry of Shanghai (13SG48), and the Doctoral Fund of Ministry of Education of China (20113121120002, 20123121110004). The second author’s research was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71101028, 71371052), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-13-0733), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (9143020), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in UIBE (14JQ02), and the Program for Innovative Research Team in UIBE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Logistics Research Center, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, 200135, China

    Zhi-Hua Hu

  2. School of International Trade and Economics, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, 100029, China

    Yingxue Zhao

  3. School of Management and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Sha Tao & Zhao-Han Sheng

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  1. Zhi-Hua Hu
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  2. Yingxue Zhao
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  3. Sha Tao
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  4. Zhao-Han Sheng
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Correspondence to Yingxue Zhao.

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Hu, ZH., Zhao, Y., Tao, S. et al. Finished-vehicle transporter routing problem solved by loading pattern discovery. Ann Oper Res 234, 37–56 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-014-1777-1

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