A multi-depot period vehicle routing problem arising in the utilities sector

This paper considers the resource planning problem of a utility company that provides preventive maintenance services to a set of customers using a fleet of depot-based mobile gangs. The problem is to determine the boundaries of the geographic areas served by each depot, the list of customers visite...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of the Operational Research Society Vol. 49; no. 12; pp. 1239 - 1248
Main Authors Hadjiconstantinou, E, Baldacci, R
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Taylor & Francis 01.12.1998
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Subjects
Business and Management
Case-Oriented Paper
heuristics
logistics
Management
Operations Research/Decision Theory
planning
scheduling
vehicle routing
scheduling
planning
logistics
heuristics
vehicle routing
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Summary:This paper considers the resource planning problem of a utility company that provides preventive maintenance services to a set of customers using a fleet of depot-based mobile gangs. The problem is to determine the boundaries of the geographic areas served by each depot, the list of customers visited each day and the routes followed by the gangs. The objective is to provide improved customer service at minimum operating cost subject to constraints on frequency of visits, service time requirements, customer preferences for visiting on particular days and other routing constraints. The problem is solved as a Multi-Depot Period Vehicle Routing Problem (MDPVRP). The computational implementation of the complete planning model is described with reference to a pilot study and results are presented. The solution algorithm is used to construct cost-service trade-off curves for all depots so that management can evaluate the impact of different customer service levels on total routing costs.
ISSN:0160-5682
1476-9360
DOI:10.1057/palgrave.jors.2600641