Future paths for integer programming and links to artificial intelligence
Computers and Operations Research - Special issue: Applications of integer programming
One warehouse multiple retailer systems with vehicle routing costs
Management Science
An Efficient Heuristic Algorithm for a Two-Echelon Joint Inventory and Routing Problem
Transportation Science
A Branch-and-Cut Algorithm for a Vendor-Managed Inventory-Routing Problem
Transportation Science
INFORMS Journal on Computing
Variable neighborhood search for the inventory routing and scheduling problem in a supply chain
Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal
Variable Neighborhood Search heuristic for the Inventory Routing Problem in fuel delivery
Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal
Genetic Algorithm for Inventory Levels and Routing Structure Optimization in Two Stage Supply Chain
International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management
A local search method for periodic inventory routing problem
Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal
Hi-index | 12.06 |
The present article studies an inventory routing model which integrates two important components of the supply chain: transportation logistics and inventory control. The distribution system examined consists of customers that face product demand at a deterministic and constant rate. Customer demand is satisfied by a fixed vehicle fleet located at the central depot. The aim of the problem is to determine the timing and size of the replenishment services together with the vehicle routes, so that the total transportation and inventory holding cost of the system is minimized. In methodological terms, we propose a solution approach applying two innovative local search operators for jointly dealing with the inventory and routing aspects of the examined problem, and Tabu Search for further reducing the transportation costs. The proposed algorithmic framework was tested on a set of new benchmark instances of various scales. It produced satisfactory results both in terms of effectiveness and robustness.