Variants of VRP to Optimize Logistics Management Problems

Abstract

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is a key to the efficient transportation management and supply-chain coordination. VRP research has often been too focused on idealized models with non-realistic assumptions for practical applications. Nowadays the evolution of methodologies allows that the classical problems could be used to solve VRP problems of real life. The evolution of methodologies allows the creation of variants of the VRP which were considered too difficult to handle by their variety of possible restrictions. A VRP problem that includes the addition of restrictions, which represent the variants in the problem, is called Rich VRP. This work presents an algorithm to optimize the transportation management. The authors are including a case of study which solves a real routing problem applied to the distribution of bottled products. The proposed algorithm shows a saving in quantity of vehicles and reduces the operation costs of the company.