基于差分进化算法的运输容量约束下有数量折扣的模糊联合补货模型研究

针对采购管理中广泛存在的不确定性,将单位库存成本和可变订货成本视为模糊变量,构建了运输容量约束下有数量折扣的模糊联合补货模型,此模型属于NP-hard问题,目前缺乏可靠的全局优化求解算法。在选取梯级平均综合表示法对总成本去模糊的基础上,设计了基于自适应混合差分进化算法的求解方法,并通过算例验证了此模糊联合补货模型的有效性和求解算法的全局优化能力。     

基于混合差分进化算法的联合补货-配送优化模型

本文综合考虑联合补货与配送决策,研究了随机需求、允许缺货环境下多企业多产品联合补货与配送集成优化模型,设计了混合差分进化算法(Hybrid Differential Evolution, HDE)对该模型进行求解,同时通过算例与遗传算法、标准的DE算法进行了比较,证实HDE算法高效且稳定;另外,设计了一个先补货再配送的两阶段优化模型,对比优化结果发现采用供应链协同时补货成本较高,配送成本较低,且总成本较低。最后,对相关参数进行了敏感性分析,发现需求率和库存维持成本的变动对总成本的影响远远大过次要订货成本对总成本的影响。     

基于改进联合采购及配送模型的RFID投资决策研究

随着商品需求差异化加深和物流响应的加快,多品采-配运作效率提升面临挑战。RFID通过实时追踪商品状态实现商品信息全流程共享。但RFID高成本要求在采-配过程中实施RFID需平衡其投资风险和效率回报的关系。因此,本文考虑到实施RFID可提升采-配的订货效率和JIT （Just in Time）效率,研究基于改进联合采购及配送（Joint Replenishment and Delivery,JRD）模型的RFID投资决策问题。改进JRD实现多品联采和多客户联配协同,以RFID投资下总成本最低为目标,获得最佳采购周期和频率。模型通过设计差分进化算法（Differential Evolution,DE）求解,数值实验结果表明：（1） DE在求解精度和速度方面具有优势;（2）实施RFID有助于降低改进JRD模型总成本,但需关注投资规模和回报的均衡;（3）基于JRD全流程的RFID投资效果优于仅部分流程投资效果,且成本越高流程实施RFID的收益潜力越大。     

时变路网下多中心电动车-无人机协同配送路径优化

针对车辆行驶时间依赖配送区域路网速度变化的多中心电动车-无人机协同配送路径问题,本文综合考虑配送区域路网交通信息,无人机最大飞行距离、承重能力,配送过程中电动车电池的荷电状态,以及车辆行驶速度、载重量等对电动车能耗的影响等,以总配送成本最小化为目标建立多中心车辆-无人机协同配送路径优化模型。根据问题特征,本文设计遗传大邻域搜索混合算法求解模型,该算法在传统遗传算法基础上,采用整数编码随机生成初始种群,通过无人机最大承重能力、飞行距离筛选无人机可服务的客户,然后确定车辆及无人机的配送路径生成初始解,并嵌入2组摧毁和重建算子进行进化操作。本文通过多组算例验证了算法及模型的有效性,并分析了车辆搭载的无人机数量以及车辆行驶速度对配送方案制定的影响。研究成果丰富和拓展了车辆路径优化的研究领域,可为交通、物流企业优化决策配送方案提供理论依据。     

资金和存储能力约束下基于改进差分进化算法的联合采购模型研究

针对贴近实际情况约束的联合采购问题研究之不足,分析了资金和存储能力约束条件下的联合采购决策模型,该模型属于NP-hard问题,目前缺乏稳定高效的求解算法.在对差分进化算法改进并测试性能的基础上,设计了一种稳定可靠的自适应混合差分进化求解算法.另外,目前联合采购模型研究中多假设需求、库存持有费用以及次要准备费用为确定的参数,现实中这些参数往往是变动的且很难准确确定,故基于改进的差分进化算法对这些参数进行敏感性分析,进而讨论了数据不准确性对联合采购策略的影响程度.     

基于改进多目标烟花算法的预制构件配送优化研究

在运输阶段,预制构件从生产工厂运送到施工工地,长距离、大体积、易损伤等因素导致其物流成本偏高,科学合理的配送方案有助于降低物流成本。本文基于运输成本、配送效率、配送时间等多维度的现场需求,建立了将运输成本作为第一目标,收货方的客户满意度作为第二目标,车队的平均实载率作为第三目标的混合车队配送模型。最后以预制构件生产工厂为算例,利用遗传算法的交叉变异过程对多目标烟花算法进行改进并对模型进行求解,从分析求解结果可以得出,该模型在有效降低了配送成本的同时,提高了客户满意度以及平均实载率,证明了模型的实用性与可行性。     

考虑同城配送的多产品多中心两级物流网络设计及车辆路径研究

随着快递行业的快速发展,快递企业单处理中心模式已无法满足多种快递产品的处理需求。同时,同城快递与跨城快递独立配送模式导致城市物流末端配送资源利用率低。为建立高效的城市快件配送网络,本文分析现有配送系统及多产品需求特点,设计了服务多种产品的同城-跨城配送相融合的城市配送网络,构建了多中心-两级配送-环线配送网络车辆路径优化模型,并建立以系统车辆路径总成本最小和快递包裹配送总时间最少的多目标数学优化模型。结果表明该模型能够有效区分各快递产品,降低处理中心的工作压力,缩短快递包裹平均配送时间,从而提高末端配送效率和资源利用率。针对该模型,采用非支配排序遗传算法(NSGA-Ⅱ)对其进行求解,结合算例验证了模型及算法的实用性与有效性。     

电子中介中具有数量折扣的多属性商品交易匹配问题研究

针对电子中介中卖方对多数量的商品交易存在数量折扣的情形,研究了具有数量折扣的多属性商品交易匹配问题。首先,给出了新的买卖双方多属性商品交易匹配度的概念和计算方法,并且确立了卖方商品的数量折扣曲线。然后,以最大化买卖双方加权匹配度为目标,建立了电子中介中具有数量折扣的多属性商品交易匹配模型,并根据模型的非连续和非线性特点,设计了嵌入混沌扰动的捕食搜索算法对模型进行求解。最后,通过多个实例的计算,并与遗传算法进行对比分析,结果表明模型与算法是可行和高效的。     

考虑旅客跨区间流转的机票多预定区间折扣优化模型研究

多预定区间差异化折扣逐渐成为机票收益管理的重要分支。本文提出了一种新的收益管理模型：基于顾客跨区间流转的收益管理模型,并给出了二分法迭代求解方法。假设各个预订时间区间的潜在需求可以通过大数据手段进行预测,首先结合旅客的价格敏感和潜在需求跨时间段流转的特性分析了各区间的需求函数,然后结合需求函数构建了多预定区间折扣优化模型。由于该模型属于动态的收益管理模型,因此构建了一种动态求解方法——二分迭代法。最后,依据航空公司的实际情况设计了两个仿真实验。实验计算结果不仅验证了新模型和算法的有效性,而且得出一些比较有用的结论：（1）票价与提前购票时间不存在单调的线性关系;（2）预订区间远离离港日折扣逐渐变大,靠近离港日的折扣会逐渐减少,但是包含离港日的预订区间的折扣又会变大;（3）流转率越高则折扣越少;（4）价格敏感系数越高折扣越高;（5）流转率通过改变价格敏感系数而影响折扣的大小。本文给出的折扣优化决策模型符合旅游产品多预定区间折扣决策的实践,可以为机票、酒店、景区等多种旅游产品的票价决策提供有益参考。     

A comparison between genetic algorithms and the RAND method for solving the joint replenishment problem

The purpose of this paper is to compare the performance of genetic algorithms (GAs) and the best available heuristic, known as the RAND, for solving the joint replenishment problem (JRP). An important feature of the JRP which makes it suitable for GAs is that it can be formulated as a problem having one continuous decision variable and a number of integer decision variables equal to the number of products being produced or ordered. Experiments on randomly generated problems indicate that GAs can provide better solutions to the JRP than the RAND for some problems, and at worst can almost match the performance of the RAND from a practical point of view for the rest of the problems. GAs never converged to solution with a total cost of more than 0.08% of the total cost of the RAND for 1600 randomly generated problems. In addition, GAs have the advantages of: (i) being easy to implement (e.g. less than 200 lines of code); (ii) having a code which is easy to understand and modify; and (iii) dealing easily with constrained JRPs which are neglected by most of the available methods including the RAND, in spite of their importance in practice.     

The supplier selection problem with quantity discounts and truckload shipping

To minimize procurement expenditures both purchasing and transportation costs need to be considered. We study a procurement setting in which a company needs to purchase a number of products from a set of suppliers to satisfy customer demand. The suppliers offer total quantity discounts and transportation costs are based on truckload shipping rates. The goal is to select a set of suppliers so as to satisfy product demand at minimal total costs. The resulting optimization problem is strongly NP-hard. We develop integer programming based heuristics to solve the problem. Extensive computational experiments demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed heuristics and provide insight into the impact of instance characteristics on effective procurement strategies.     

The freight allocation problem with all-units quantity-based discount: A heuristic algorithm

This paper studies a problem encountered by a buying office for one of the largest retail distributors in the world. An important task for the buying office is to plan the distribution of goods from Asia to various destinations across Europe. The goods are transported along shipping lanes by shipping companies, which offer different discount rates depending on the freight quantity. To increase the reliability of transportation, the shipper imposes a quantity limit on each shipping company on each shipping lane. To guarantee a minimum business volume, each shipping company requests a minimum total freight quantity over all lanes if it is contracted. The task involves allocating projected demand of each shipping lane to shipping companies subject to the above conditions such that the total cost is minimized.Existing work on this and related problems employs commercial linear programming software to solve their models. However, since the problem is NP−hard in the strong sense, it is unlikely to be solvable optimally in reasonable time for large cases. Hence, we propose the first heuristic-based algorithm for the problem, which combines a filter-and-fan search scheme with a tabu search mechanism. Experiments on randomly generated test instances show that as the size of the problem increases, our algorithm produces superior solutions in less time compared to a leading mixed-integer programming solver.     

The resource constrained multi-item inventory problem with price discount: a geometric programming approach

In this paper we present a geometric programming approach for determining the inventory policy for multiple items having price discount and a limit on the total average inventory of all the items. An example is solved to illustrate the method.     

Optimal production,replenishment, delivery,routing and inventory management policies for products with perishable inventory

This paper presents a generalized production-inventory-routing model with perishable inventory. We analyze the optimal integrated decisions of when and how much to deliver and sell products with varying manufacturing periods. We discuss main inventory management policies to demonstrate the applicability of the model in real-world applications for production routing problems (PRPs) with perishable inventory. Furthermore, an exact branch-and-cut algorithm is developed and discussed. We introduce new families of logical, strengthened lot-sizing and lifted Miller–Tucker–Zemlin subtour elimination constraints for the PRP with perishable inventory. Finally, we test the performance of the algorithm. We also implement and compare 8 suboptimal delivery and selling priority policies with an optimized policy to develop managerial implications.     

An integrated supplier selection and inventory problem with multi-sourcing and lateral transshipments

In this research, we consider the supplier selection problem of a firm offering a single product via multiple warehouses. The warehouses face stationary, stochastic demand and replenish their inventory via multiple suppliers, to be determined from a set of candidates, with varying price, capacity, quality, and disruption characteristics. Additionally, the warehouses may simultaneously replenish their inventory from other warehouses proactively. With these characteristics, the problem is a multi-sourcing, supplier selection, and inventory problem with lateral transshipments. Even though the benefits of multi-sourcing and lateral transshipments have been presented in the literature individually to mitigate risks associated with uncertain demand and disrupted supply, the intertwined sourcing and inventory decisions under these settings have not been investigated from a quantitative perspective. We develop a decomposition based heuristic algorithm, powered with simulation. While the decomposition based heuristic determines a solution with supplier selection and inventory decisions, the simulation model evaluates the objective function value corresponding to each generated solution. Experimental results show, contrary to the existing literature, inferior decisions may result when considering the selection of suppliers solely on unit and/or contractual costs. We also evaluate the impact of multi-sourcing with rare but long disruptions compared to frequent but short ones.     

Exact approaches for the pickup and delivery problem with loading cost

In this paper, we propose a branch-and-cut algorithm and a branch-and-price algorithm to solve the pickup and delivery problem with loading cost (PDPLC), which is a new problem derived from the classic pickup and delivery problem (PDP) by considering the loading cost in the objective function. Applications of the PDPLC arise in healthcare transportation where the objective function is customer-centric or service-based. In the branch-and-price algorithm, we devise an ad hoc label-setting algorithm to solve the pricing problem and employ the bounded bidirectional search strategy to accelerate the label-setting algorithm. The proposed algorithms were tested on a set of instances generated by a common data generator in the literature. The computational results showed that the branch-and-price algorithm outperformed the branch-and-cut algorithm by a large margin, and can solve instances with 40 requests to optimality in a reasonable time frame.     

Online pickup and delivery problem with constrained capacity to minimize latency

The online pickup and delivery problem is motivated by the takeaway order delivery on crowdsourcing delivery platform, which is a newly emerged online to offline business model based on sharing economy. Considering the features of crowdsourcing delivery, an online pickup and delivery problem with constrained capacity is proposed, whose objective is to route a delivery man with constrained capacity to serve requests released over time so as to minimize the total latency. We consider online point-to-point requests with single pickup location where each request has to be picked up at the single pickup location and delivered to its destination, and each request become available at its release time, which is not known in advance. The lower bound of this problem for various capacities is proved. Two online algorithms WR and WI are presented, the competitive ratios on a half line and on general metric space are proved respectively. Further, a computational study is conducted to compare the performance of these two online algorithms on random instances of general metric space. The result shows algorithm WR performs better than WI in random cases but not in the worst case.

     

A metaheuristic for the delivery man problem with time windows

Journal of Combinatorial Optimization - The Delivery Man Problem with Time Windows (DMPTW) is an extension of the Delivery Man Problem. The objective of DMPTW is to minimize the sum of...     

The location-routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery: Formulations and a heuristic approach

In this paper, we consider a variant of the Location-Routing Problem (LRP), namely the LRP with simultaneous pickup and delivery (LRPSPD). The LRPSPD seeks to minimize total cost by simultaneously locating the depots and designing the vehicle routes that satisfy pickup and delivery demand of each customer at the same time. We propose two polynomial-size mixed integer linear programming formulations for the problem and a family of valid inequalities to strengthen the formulations. While the first formulation is a node-based formulation, the second one is a flow-based formulation. Furthermore, we propose a two-phase heuristic approach based on simulated annealing, tp_SA, to solve the large-size LRPSPD and two initialization heuristics to generate an initial solution for the tp_SA. We then empirically evaluate the strengths of the proposed formulations with respect to their ability to find optimal solutions or strong lower bounds, and investigate the performance of the proposed heuristic approach. Computational results show that the flow-based formulation performs better than the node-based formulation in terms of the solution quality and the computation time on small-size problems. However, the node-based formulation can yield competitive lower bounds in a reasonable amount of time on medium-size problems. Meantime, the proposed heuristic approach is computationally efficient in finding good quality solutions for the LRPSPD.