Plowing with precedence: A variant of the windy postman problem

In winter, a common problem is to determine the route that a snowplow should take in order to minimize the distance traveled. We propose a variant of this arc routing problem that is motivated by the fact that deadhead travel over streets that have already been plowed is significantly faster than the time it takes to plow the street. This problem differs from most arc routing problems because the cost of traversing a street changes depending on the order of the streets on a route. We develop a method that generates near-optimal solutions to instances as large as 200 nodes.     

The time-dependent rural postman problem: polyhedral results

The Chinese postman problem is a famous and classical problem in graph theory. This paper introduces a new variant of this problem, namely, the time-dependent rural postman problem, which is motivated by applications, involving scheduling with time-dependent processing time. We present an arc-path formulation for the problem with a constraint set that is divided into two parts. The first part is linear and has a strong combinatorial structure, which defines the polytope of the arc-path alternation sequence (APAS), while the second part is nonlinear and is closely related to time-dependent travel time. First, we investigate the facial structure of the APAS polytope and present several facet inequalities. Second, considering the travel and service time functions as piecewise functions, we linearize the nonlinear inequalities and propose several strong, valid inequalities. Finally, we propose a cutting plane algorithm and report numerical results on several randomly generated instances.     

A constructive heuristic for the Undirected Rural Postman Problem

This paper describes a constructive heuristic for the well-known Undirected Rural Postman Problem. At each iteration, the procedure inserts a connected component of the required edges and performs a local postoptimization. Computational results on a set of benchmark instances with up to 350 vertices show that the proposed procedure is competitive with the classical Frederickson procedure. Its use is recommended when a high-quality solution is needed in a short amount of time (e.g., in laser plotter applications).     

A tabu search algorithm for the min–max k-Chinese postman problem

In this paper we present a tabu search algorithm for the min–max k-Chinese postman problem (MM k-CPP). Given an undirected edge-weighted graph and a distinguished depot node, the MM k  -CPP consists of finding k>1$k>1$ tours (starting and ending at the depot node) such that each edge is traversed by at least one tour and the length of the longest tour is minimized. A special emphasis is put on investigating the trade-off between running time effort and solution quality when applying different improvement procedures in the course of the neighborhood construction. Furthermore, different neighborhoods are analyzed. Extensive computational results show that the tabu search algorithm outperforms all known heuristics and improvement procedures.     

A constraint programming approach to the Chinese postman problem with time windows

The Chinese postman problem with time windows (CPPTW) is modelled as a constraint programme and results are reported for a set of test problems with up to 69 edges. Two different formulations are proposed. The first formulation approaches the problem directly and the second transforms the problem to an equivalent vehicle routing problem with time windows. The results demonstrate that optimal solutions can be obtained quickly when the time windows are tight. However, the results also show that as the time windows are made wider and the number of feasible solutions increases, these constraint programming formulations take significantly longer to find a provably optimal solution. The results also demonstrate how the size and density of the graph affects the computing time needed to find an optimal solution.     

An improved heuristic for the capacitated arc routing problem

The capacitated arc routing problem (CARP) is an important and practical problem in the OR literature. In short, the problem is to identify routes to service (e.g., pickup or deliver) demand located along the edges of a network such that the total cost of the routes is minimized. In general, a single route cannot satisfy the entire demand due to capacity constraints on the vehicles. CARP belongs to the set of NP-hard problems; consequently numerous heuristic and metaheuristic solution approaches have been developed to solve it. In this paper an “ellipse rule” based heuristic is proposed for the CARP. This approach is based on the path-scanning heuristic, one of the mostly used greedy-add heuristics for this problem. The innovation consists basically of selecting edges only inside ellipses when the vehicle is near the end of each route. This new approach was implemented and tested on three standard datasets and the solutions are compared against: (i) the original path-scanning heuristic; (ii) two other path-scanning heuristics and (iii) the three best known metaheuristics. The results indicate that the “ellipse rule” approach lead to improvements over the three path-scanning heuristics, reducing the average distance to the lower bound in the test problems by about 44%.     

A comparison of two different formulations for arc routing problems on mixed graphs

Arc routing problems on mixed graphs have been modelled in the literature either using just one variable per edge or associating to each edge two variables, each one representing its traversal in the corresponding direction. In this paper, and using the mixed general routing problem as an example, we compare theoretical and computationally both formulations as well as the lower bounds obtained from them using Linear Programming based methods. Extensive computational experiments, including some big and newly generated random instances, are presented.     

A heuristic for the periodic rural postman problem

The periodic rural postman problem (PRPP) is variant of the classical rural postman problem whose applications arise in garbage collection and street sweeping. In the PRPP each required arc/edge of a graph must be visited a given number of times over an m-day planning period in such a way that service days are equally spaced. The PRPP amounts to select a service day combination for each required arc/edge and to determine a postman tour for each day of the planning period. The objective is to minimize the total distance travelled. In this paper a simple but effective heuristic for the undirected PRPP is presented. Extensive computational results indicate that the algorithm is capable of providing high quality solutions. To our knowledge this is the first methodological paper devoted to a periodic arc routing problem.     

New simple constructive heuristic algorithms for minimizing total flow-time in the permutation flowshop scheduling problem

This paper develops a set of new simple constructive heuristic algorithms to minimize total flow-time for an $n$-jobs×$m$-machines permutation flowshop scheduling problem. We first propose a new iterative algorithm based on the best existing simple heuristic algorithm, and then integrate new indicator variables for weighting jobs into this algorithm. We also propose new decision criteria to select the best partial sequence in each iteration of our algorithm. A comprehensive numerical experiment reveals that our modifications and extensions improve the effectiveness of the best existing simple heuristic without affecting its computational efficiency.     

A deterministic tabu search algorithm for the capacitated arc routing problem

The capacitated arc routing problem (CARP) is a difficult optimisation problem in vehicle routing with applications where a service must be provided by a set of vehicles on specified roads. A heuristic algorithm based on tabu search is proposed and tested on various sets of benchmark instances. The computational results show that the proposed algorithm produces high quality results within a reasonable computing time. Some new best solutions are reported for a set of test problems used in the literature.     

Multi-start simulated annealing heuristic for the location routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery

The location routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery (LRPSPD) is a new variant of the location routing problem (LRP). The objective of LRPSPD is to minimize the total cost of a distribution system including vehicle traveling cost, depot opening cost, and vehicle fixed cost by locating the depots and determining the vehicle routes to simultaneously satisfy the pickup and the delivery demands of each customer. LRPSPD is NP-hard since its special case, LRP, is NP-hard. Thus, this study proposes a multi-start simulated annealing (MSA) algorithm for solving LRPSPD which incorporates multi-start hill climbing strategy into simulated annealing framework. The MSA algorithm is tested on 360 benchmark instances to verify its performance. Results indicate that the multi-start strategy can significantly enhance the performance of traditional single-start simulated annealing algorithm. Our MSA algorithm is very effective in solving LRPSPD compared to existing solution approaches. It obtained 206 best solutions out of the 360 benchmark instances, including 126 new best solutions.     

A general heuristic for vehicle routing problems

We present a unified heuristic which is able to solve five different variants of the vehicle routing problem: the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW), the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP), the multi-depot vehicle routing problem (MDVRP), the site-dependent vehicle routing problem (SDVRP) and the open vehicle routing problem (OVRP).     

New heuristic algorithms for solving the planar p-median problem

In this paper we propose effective heuristics for the solution of the planar p-median problem. We develop a new distribution based variable neighborhood search and a new genetic algorithm, and also test a hybrid algorithm that combines these two approaches. The best results were obtained by the hybrid approach. The best known solution was found in 466 out of 470 runs, and the average solution was only 0.000016% above the best known solution on 47 well explored test instances of 654 and 1060 demand points and up to 150 facilities.     

Improved LP-based algorithms for the closest string problem

In a recent paper by Liu et al. [Exact algorithm and heuristic for the closest string problem, Computers & Operations Research 2011;38:1513-20], a polynomial time heuristic procedure is proposed for the closest string problem (CSP). Such heuristic called LDDA_LSS is a combination of a previously published approximation algorithm and local search strategies. This paper points out that an instant algorithm deriving a feasible solution directly from the continuous relaxation solution of a standard ILP formulation of CSP already strongly outperforms LDDA_LSS both in terms of solution quality and computing time. Two core based procedures are then proposed that further improve the results of the instant algorithm. Based on these results, we conclude that such LP-based approaches for their efficiency and simplicity should be used as a benchmark for future heuristics on CSP.     

Exact and heuristic algorithms for the vehicle routing problem with multiple interdependent time windows

In this paper a model and several solution procedures for a novel type of vehicle routing problems where time windows for the pickup of perishable goods depend on the dispatching policy used in the solution process are presented. This problem is referred to as Vehicle Routing Problem with multiple interdependent time windows (VRPmiTW) and is motivated by a project carried out with the Austrian Red Cross blood program to assist their logistics department. Several variants of a heuristic constructive procedure as well as a branch-and-bound based algorithm for this problem were developed and implemented. Besides finding the expected reduction in costs when compared with the current procedures of the Austrian Red Cross, the results show that the heuristic algorithms find solutions reasonably close to the optimum in fractions of a second. Another important finding is that increasing the number of pickups at selected customers beyond the theoretical minimum number of pickups yields significantly greater potential for cost reductions.     

Heuristic algorithms for a three-dimensional loading capacitated vehicle routing problem in a carrier

In this paper, we present heuristic algorithms for a three-dimensional loading capacitated vehicle routing problem arising in a real-world situation. In this problem, customers make requests of goods, which are packed in a sortment of boxes. The objective is to find minimum cost delivery routes for a set of identical vehicles that, departing from a depot, visit all customers only once and return to the depot. Apart of the usual 3D container loading constraints which ensure that the boxes are packed completely inside the vehicles and that the boxes do not overlap each other in each vehicle, the problem also takes into account constraints related to the vertical stability of the cargo and multi-drop situations. The algorithms are based on the combination of classical heuristics from both vehicle routing and container loading literatures, as well as two metaheuristic strategies, and their use in more elaborate procedures. Although these approaches cannot assure optimal solutions for the respective problems, they are relatively simple, fast enough to solve real instances, flexible enough to include other practical considerations, and normally assure relatively good solutions in acceptable computational times in practice. The approaches are also sufficiently generic to be embedded with algorithms other than those considered in this study, as well as they can be easily adapted to consider other practical constraints, such as the load bearing strength of the boxes, time windows and pickups and deliveries. Computational tests were performed with these methods considering instances based on the vehicle routing literature and actual customers’ orders, as well as instances based on a real-world situation of a Brazilian carrier. The results show that the heuristics are able to produce relatively good solutions for real instances with hundreds of customers and thousands of boxes.     

An iterated local search heuristic for the split delivery vehicle routing problem

This paper concerns the Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem (SDVRP). This problem is a relaxation of the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) since the customers׳ demands are allowed to be split. We deal with the cases where the fleet is unlimited (SDVRP-UF) and limited (SDVRP-LF). In order to solve them, we implemented a multi-start Iterated Local Search (ILS) based heuristic that includes a novel perturbation mechanism. Extensive computational experiments were carried out on benchmark instances available in the literature. The results obtained are highly competitive, more precisely, 55 best known solutions were equaled and new improved solutions were found for 243 out of 324 instances, with an average and maximum improvement of 1.15% and 2.81%, respectively.     

Heuristic algorithms for the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pick-up and delivery

The vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pick-up and delivery is the problem of optimally integrating goods distribution and waste collection, when no precedence constraints are imposed on the order in which the operations must be performed. The purpose of this paper is to present heuristic algorithms to solve this problem approximately in a small amount of computing time. We present and compare constructive algorithms, local search algorithms and tabu search algorithms, reporting on our computational experience with all of them. In particular we address the issue of applying the tabu search paradigm to algorithms based on complex and variable neighborhoods. For this purpose we combine arc-exchange-based and node-exchange-based neighborhoods, employing different and interacting tabu lists. All the algorithms presented in this paper are applicable to problems in which each customer may have either a pick-up demand or a delivery demand as well as to problems in which each customer may require both kinds of operation.     

A construction and improvement heuristic for a liquefied natural gas inventory routing problem

We present a large scale ship routing and inventory management problem for a producer and distributor of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The problem contains multiple products, inventory and berth capacity at the loading port and a heterogeneous fleet of ships. The goal is to create an annual delivery program to fulfill the producer’s long-term contracts at minimum cost, while maximizing the revenue from selling LNG in the spot market. To solve this problem we have developed a construction and improvement heuristic (CIH).The CIH is a multi-start local search heuristic that constructs a set of solutions using a greedy insertion procedure. The solutions are then improved using either a first-descent neighborhood search, branch-and-bound on a mathematical formulation, or both. Tests on real-life instances show that the CIH provides good solutions in a short amount of time.