A sustainable supply chain network considering lot sizing with quantity discounts under disruption risks: centralized and decentralized models

This study proposes a framework for the main parties of a sustainable supply chain network considering lot-sizing impact with quantity discounts under disruption risk among the first studies. The proposed problem differs from most studies considering supplier selection and order allocation in this area. First, regarding the concept of the triple bottom line, total cost, environmental emissions, and job opportunities are considered to cover the criteria of sustainability. Second, the application of this supply chain network is transformer production. Third, applying an economic order quantity model lets our model have a smart inventory plan to control the uncertainties. Most significantly, we present both centralized and decentralized optimization models to cope with the considered problem. The proposed centralized model focuses on pricing and inventory decisions of a supply chain network with a focus on supplier selection and order allocation parts. This model is formulated by a scenario-based stochastic mixed-integer non-linear programming approach. Our second model focuses on the competition of suppliers based on the price of products with regard to sustainability. In this regard, a Stackelberg game model is developed. Based on this comparison, we can see that the sum of the costs for both levels is lower than the cost without the bi-level approach. However, the computational time for the bi-level approach is more than for the centralized model. This means that the proposed optimization model can better solve our problem to achieve a better solution than the centralized optimization model. However, obtaining this better answer also requires more processing time. To address both optimization models, a hybrid bio-inspired metaheuristic as the hybrid of imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) is utilized. The proposed algorithm is compared with its individuals. All employed optimizers have been tuned by the Taguchi method and validated by an exact solver in small sizes. Numerical results show that striking similarities are observed between the results of the algorithms, but the standard deviations of PSO and ICA–PSO show better behavior. Furthermore, while PSO consumes less time among the metaheuristics, the proposed hybrid metaheuristic named ICA–PSO shows more time computations in all small instances. Finally, the provided results confirm the efficiency and the performance of the proposed framework and the proposed hybrid metaheuristic algorithm.

     

Dynamic vehicle routing for online B2C delivery

Electronic commerce (EC) is increasingly popular in today's businesses. The business-to-consumer EC environment has voluminous, unpredictable, and dynamically changing customer orders. A major part of the delivery system of this environment is the dynamic vehicle routing (DVR) system. This study investigates several algorithms suitable for solving the DVR problem in business-to-consumer (B2C) EC environment. It designs the solution process into three phases: initial-routes formation, inter-routes improvement, and intra-route improvement. A computer program is created to demonstrate a system simulating vehicle routing process under the online B2C environment. The simulated system collects data for system performance indexes such as simulation time, travel distance, delivery time, and delay time. The results show that when orders are placed through the Internet in an online B2C environment, the Nearest algorithms can be used to find satisfactory routes during the first phase of a DVR delivery system. The three-phase solution process is proven to be significantly better in travel distance and delivery time than the conventional single-phase solution process.     

考虑差异化服务时间的多车型电动汽车路径优化与充电策略研究

在政府政策大力支持以及社会环境意识不断增长的背景下,电动汽车在物流配送行业快速普及。电动汽车参与的物流配送服务需要物流专员、电动汽车和顾客三方协作完成。因此,在传统车辆配送路径优化的基础上,车辆的多样性、充电策略、人车的匹配以及服务时间差异化等因素都会影响物流运营成本。本文提出了考虑差异化服务成本的多车型电动汽车路径优化与充电策略问题并建立了该问题的整数规划数学模型。其次,提出了混合启发式算法MCWGATS,并通过多组算例验证了算法的有效性。最后,采用多组算例分析了多车型和差异化服务时间对运营成本的影响。实验结果表明,该模型有助于物流企业提高人员、物流车辆、服务时间等资源的利用效率,降低运营成本。     

电子商务下基于改进两阶段算法的有时间窗车辆调度优化

为满足电子商务下的物流配送需求,将传统车辆调度模型进行修改,将目标函数改为基于费用最小,在约束条件中增加时间约束、货物容积约束、车辆最大工作时间、多种车型、载重量限制和最大行驶距离等,以提高模型的适用性和通用性。由于有时间窗的车辆调度问题是NP难问题,采用改进两阶段算法进行求解。即第一阶段用模糊分层聚类法将客户群分成若干区域,在每个区域又用扫描算法分解成若干符合约束条件的小规模子集;第二个阶段对各个分组内客户点,就是一个个单独TSPTW模型的线路优化问题,因此,采用改进混合遗传算法进行优化求解,最后的算例仿真表明了算法的有效性和可行性。     

同时集散货物的开放式车辆路径问题研究

本文研究了车辆工作时间限制下同时集散货物的多配送中心开放式车辆路径问题,以车辆数和运输里程最小为目标,建立了多目标规划模型,提出了基于拉格朗日松弛技术和禁忌搜索算法的混合求解算法。 该算法首先求出最优解的最大下界,然后采用客户点的分配和调整策略实现解的可行化,其中禁忌搜索引入了4种领域搜索方法,采用了随机变领域搜索方法和重起策略。算例分析表明,该算法能有效地找到满意解,且采用开放式安排路线比闭合式安排路线更加经济合理。     

A multi-period ambulance location and allocation problem in the disaster

To achieve quick response in the disaster, this paper addresses the issue of ambulance location and allocation, as well as the location problem of temporary medical centers. Considering budget and capacity limitations, a multi-period mixed integer programming model is proposed and two hybrid heuristic algorithms are designed to solve this complex problem. The proposed model and algorithm are further verified in a real case study, and the numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed model. Specifically, we obtain several findings based on the computational results: (1) The best locations of ambulance stations should change in each period because the demand rate changes over time. (2) Involving temporary medical centers is necessary to reduce the average waiting time of injured people. (3) It may not be optimal to allocate ambulances from the nearest ambulance stations because of potentially limited station capacity.

     

自动化立体仓库中的储位分配及存取路径优化

储位分配和存取作业路径优化是仓储管理中的两个重要决策问题。本文研究如何在自动化立体仓库中对这两个问题进行同时决策。提出了一个混合整数规划模型对该问题进行优化建模,设计开发了一个基于有向连接图的两阶段优化算法对问题求初始解,并利用禁忌搜索算法对所求得的解进行改进。算法第一阶段解决储位分配问题,在此基础上第二阶段利用Hungarian算法对堆垛机的存取作业路径优化问题进行求解。最后利用实例对算法效率和精度进行分析评价,计算结果验证了算法的有效性。     

具有模糊旅行时间的VRP的一种混合遗传算法

传统确定性车辆路径问题是近几十年来运筹学领域研究的一个热点问题.但在许多实际的应用中,由于受客观世界中存在的不确定性因素以及人类观察、认识事物的模糊性的影响,车辆路径问题的某些参数可能是模糊的、不确定的.文中传统确定性车辆路径问题被扩展为具有模糊特征的模糊车辆路径问题.在对具有模糊旅行时间的车辆路径问题进行简单描述的基础上,构建了该问题的数学模型,并通过将模糊逻辑、模糊控制方法与传统车辆路径问题的遗传算法进行有效结合,提出了解决该问题的一种混合遗传算法.最后给出了该问题的一个计算实例,并通过随机模拟试验验证了该算法的有效性和优越性.     

Network Reconfiguration for Increasing Transportation System Resilience Under Extreme Events

Evacuating residents out of affected areas is an important strategy for mitigating the impact of natural disasters. However, the resulting abrupt increase in the travel demand during evacuation causes severe congestions across the transportation system, which thereby interrupts other commuters' regular activities. In this article, a bilevel mathematical optimization model is formulated to address this issue, and our research objective is to maximize the transportation system resilience and restore its performance through two network reconfiguration schemes: contraflow (also referred to as lane reversal) and crossing elimination at intersections. Mathematical models are developed to represent the two reconfiguration schemes and characterize the interactions between traffic operators and passengers. Specifically, traffic operators act as leaders to determine the optimal system reconfiguration to minimize the total travel time for all the users (both evacuees and regular commuters), while passengers act as followers by freely choosing the path with the minimum travel time, which eventually converges to a user equilibrium state. For each given network reconfiguration, the lower‐level problem is formulated as a traffic assignment problem (TAP) where each user tries to minimize his/her own travel time. To tackle the lower‐level optimization problem, a gradient projection method is leveraged to shift the flow from other nonshortest paths to the shortest path between each origin–destination pair, eventually converging to the user equilibrium traffic assignment. The upper‐level problem is formulated as a constrained discrete optimization problem, and a probabilistic solution discovery algorithm is used to obtain the near‐optimal solution. Two numerical examples are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in restoring the traffic system performance.     

Dynamic Programming and Hill-Climbing Techniques for Constrained Two-Dimensional Cutting Stock Problems

In this paper we propose an algorithm for the constrained two-dimensional cutting stock problem (TDC) in which a single stock sheet has to be cut into a set of small pieces, while maximizing the value of the pieces cut. The TDC problem is NP-hard in the strong sense and finds many practical applications in the cutting and packing area. The proposed algorithm is a hybrid approach in which a depth-first search using hill-climbing strategies and dynamic programming techniques are combined. The algorithm starts with an initial (feasible) lower bound computed by solving a series of single bounded knapsack problems. In order to enhance the first-level lower bound, we introduce an incremental procedure which is used within a top-down branch-and-bound procedure. We also propose some hill-climbing strategies in order to produce a good trade-off between the computational time and the solution quality. Extensive computational testing on problem instances from the literature shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The obtained results are compared to the results published by Alvarez-Valdés et al. (2002).     

自动化立体仓库中出入库任务顺序与出库位置选择集成优化研究

具有多个出口的自动化立体仓库系统是一种将存储和分拣相结合的新型仓储技术,其最典型的特征是在货架底层有很多个出库位置以供取货人员分拣。研究此系统中出入库任务排序与出口选择的集成优化问题,以最小化堆垛机完成所有任务的移动距离为目标,将此问题转化为一个混合整数规划模型。根据问题的特点设计了两阶段启发式算法求解此问题,数值结果表明设计的算法能在较短时间内给出近似最优解,同时与企业常用的先到先服务方法相比,该算法可以缩短超过20%的移动距离。     

Multi-depot vehicle routing problem with time windows under shared depot resources

A new variant of multi-depot vehicle routing problem with time windows is studied. In the new variant, the depot where the vehicle ends is flexible, namely, it is not entirely the same as the depot that it starts from. An integer programming model is formulated with the minimum total traveling cost under the constrains of time window, capacity and route duration of the vehicle, the fleet size and the number of parking spaces of each depot. As the problem is an NP-Hard problem, a hybrid genetic algorithm with adaptive local search is proposed to solve it. Finally, the computational results show that the proposed method is competitive in terms of solution quality. Compared with the classic MDVRPTW, allowing flexible choice of the stop depot can further reduce total traveling cost.     

An investigation into the vehicle routing problem with time windows and link capacity constraints

In this work, we investigate a new, yet practical, variant of the vehicle routing problem called the vehicle routing problem with time windows and link capacity constraints (VRPTWLC). The problem considers new constraints imposed on road links with regard to vehicle passing tonnage, which is motivated by a business project with a Hong Kong transportation company that transports hazardous materials (hazmats) across the city and between Hong Kong and mainland China. In order to solve this computationally challenging problem, we develop a tabu search heuristic with an adaptive penalty mechanism (TSAP) to help manage the company's vehicle fleet. A new data set and its generation scheme are also presented to help validate our solutions. Extensive computational experiments are conducted, showing the effectiveness of the proposed solution approach.     

Minimizing makespan in a blocking flowshop using a revised artificial immune system algorithm

The blocking flowshop scheduling problem has a strong industrial background but is under-represented in the research literature. In this study, a revised artificial immune system (RAIS) algorithm based on the features of artificial immune systems and the annealing process of simulated annealing algorithms was presented to minimize the makespan in a blocking flowshop. To validate the performance of the proposed RAIS algorithm, computational experiments and comparisons were conducted on the well-known benchmark problems of Taillard used in earlier studies. The experimental results show that the proposed RAIS algorithm outperforms the state-of-art algorithms on the same benchmark problem data set.     

基于改进蚁群算法的低碳车辆路径问题研究

全球气候恶化危及人类生存环境,物流运输过程中产生的大量温室气体则是祸源之一。本文考虑带有碳排放约束的车辆路径问题（VRP）,以车辆行驶里程最短和碳排放量最小为目标,构建了多目标的VRP非线性规划模型。提出了一种改进的蚁群系统算法对该模型进行求解,算法在更新路径上的蚂蚁信息素时引入了混沌扰动机制,此举能降低算法运行时陷入局部最优解的概率并有效提高算法的适应性。同时,对启发因子、状态转移概率、信息素更新等环节进行了优化设计,提高了最优路径的搜索效率。最后,数值仿真实验证明了该算法的求解表现优于同类研究常用的遗传算法和禁忌搜索算法,具有较强的全局寻优能力。在灵敏性和有效性的保证下,本研究所设计的改进蚁群算法能够较好地处理低碳车辆路径问题（LCVRP）。     

Job-shop scheduling-joint consideration of production,transport, and storage/retrieval systems

This paper proposes a new problem by integrating the job shop scheduling, the part feeding, and the automated storage and retrieval problems. These three problems are intertwined and the performance of each of these problems influences and is influenced by the performance of the other problems. We consider a manufacturing environment composed of a set of machines (production system) connected by a transport system and a storage/retrieval system. Jobs are retrieved from storage and delivered to a load/unload area (LU) by the automated storage retrieval system. Then they are transported to and between the machines where their operations are processed on by the transport system. Once all operations of a job are processed, the job is taken back to the LU and then returned to the storage cell. We propose a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model that can be solved to optimality for small-sized instances. We also propose a hybrid simulated annealing (HSA) algorithm to find good quality solutions for larger instances. The HSA incorporates a late acceptance hill-climbing algorithm and a multistart strategy to promote both intensification and exploration while decreasing computational requirements. To compute the optimality gap of the HSA solutions, we derive a very fast lower bounding procedure. Computational experiments are conducted on two sets of instances that we also propose. The computational results show the effectiveness of the MILP on small-sized instances as well as the effectiveness, efficiency, and robustness of the HSA on medium and large-sized instances. Furthermore, the computational experiments clearly shown that importance of optimizing the three problems simultaneous. Finally, the importance and relevance of including the storage/retrieval activities are empirically demonstrated as ignoring them leads to wrong and misleading results.

     

电动汽车物流配送系统的换电站选址与路径优化问题研究

在能源、环境形势日益严重的今天,电动汽车因其清洁、节能的显著优势,已经逐步成为物流配送公司重要的新能源交通工具,优化物流配送网络成为电动汽车作为物流工具普及的一个重要问题。本文提出了电动汽车物流配送系统的换电站选址与配送路径优化问题,建立了整数规划模型,并设计禁忌搜索-改进Clarke-Wright 节省的两阶段启发式算法来求解该模型,提出了两种不同的禁忌准则,并且通过算例对这两种准则进行了比较。为了证明算法的有效性,还将该算法的结果同CPLEX的计算结果进行了比较,结果表明该算法更加有效和可靠。最后,对车辆的装载容量、电池续航里程和单位建站成本做敏感性分析,发现总成本随着装载容量的增加而显著降低,电池续航里程的提升有助于降低建站成本并降低目标函数值,而单位建站成本的增加可能减少建站个数,增加运输成本,但由于续航里程的限制,建站个数也可能保持不变。     

A joint optimization of data ferry trajectories and communication powers of ground sensors for long-term environmental monitoring

Recently, various hybrid wireless sensor networks which consist of several robotic vehicles and a number of static ground sensors have been investigated. In this kind of system, the main role of the mobile nodes is to deliver the messages produced by the sensor nodes, and naturally their trajectory control becomes a significant issue closely related to the performance of the entire system. Previously, several communication power control strategies such as topology control are investigated to improve energy-efficiency of wireless sensor networks. However, to the best of our knowledge, no communication power control strategy has been investigated in the context of the hybrid wireless sensor networks. This paper introduces a new strategy to utilize the communication power control in multiple data ferry assisted wireless sensor network for long-term environmental monitoring such that the lifetime of the sensor network is maximized. We formally define the problem of our interest and show it is NP-hard. We further prove there exists no approximation algorithm for the problem which can produce a feasible solution for every possible problem instance even though there is a feasible solution. Then, we propose heuristic algorithms along with rigorous theoretical performance analysis for both the single data ferry case and the multiple data ferry case under certain condition.     

低碳环境下的车辆路径问题及禁忌搜索算法研究

基于节能减排的新视角,本文研究了低碳环境下由第三方提供运输服务的车辆路径问题,在安排车辆路径时,同时考虑了能耗、碳排放和租车费用,而这些费用不仅与距离有关,也与客户点的需求量和车辆速度有关。提出了考虑车辆运量和速度的能耗计算方法,建立了非满载运输方式下的低碳路径模型——LCRP。设计了基于路径划分的禁忌搜索算法RS-TS对问题进行求解,该算法引入了一种新颖的路径编码与解码算法WSS,采用了三种邻域搜索方法。通过基准测试实例验证了算法能有效地找到满意解,并揭示了距离、能耗、行驶时间等参数之间的关系,实验分析表明采用低碳路径安排更加经济环保且选择中低的交通速度更有利于节约能耗和降低碳排放。     

An oracle-based algorithm for robust planning of production routing problems in closed-loop supply chains of beverage glass bottles

The demand for glass bottles is exhibiting an upward trend over time. The manufacturing of glass bottles is costlier in terms of time and resources and is associated with a higher level of heat generation and environmental pollution compared to recycling processes. In response to the aforementioned challenges, companies that use glass bottles need to implement strategies to manage their reverse supply chains in conjunction with their traditional supply chains, as the economic and environmental benefits of returned products are unquestionable. Closed-loop supply chains (CLSCs) integrate forward and reverse flows of products and information. This integration helps companies to have a broader view of the whole chain. Despite these advantages, managing CLSCs can be challenging as they are exposed to many uncertainties regarding supply and demand processes, travel times, and quantity/quality of returned products.In this study, we consider the production planning, inventory management, and vehicle routing decisions of a CLSC of beverage glass bottles. We propose an MILP model and rely on a multi-stage adjustable robust optimization (ARO) formulation to deal with the randomness in both the demand for filled bottles and the requests for pickups of empty bottles. We develop an exact oracle-based algorithm to solve the ARO problem and propose a heuristic search algorithm to reduce the solution time. Our numerical experiments not only show the incompetency of the customary method, namely the affine decision rule approach, but also illustrate how our algorithms can solve the small-size problems and significantly improve the quality of the obtained solution for large problems. Furthermore, our numerical results show that robust plans tend to be sparse, meaning the routes are chosen so that empty bottles are transported to production sites in such a way that fewer new bottles need to be ordered. Thus, robust planning makes the CLSCs more environmentally friendly.