Waste collection vehicle routing problem with time windows
Computers and Operations Research
Computers and Industrial Engineering - Special issue: Computational intelligence and information technology applications to industrial engineering selected papers from the 33 rd ICC&IE
Information Technology for Development
An evolutionary-based decision support system for vehicle routing: The case of a public utility
Decision Support Systems
Computers and Industrial Engineering
Arc-guided evolutionary algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows
IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation
Scheduling technicians and tasks in a telecommunications company
Journal of Scheduling
Computers and Operations Research
Solving vehicle routing problems using an enhanced clarke-wright algorithm: a case study
ICCL'12 Proceedings of the Third international conference on Computational Logistics
GIS and GPS Applications in Emerging Economies: Observation and Analysis of a Chinese Logistics Firm
International Journal of Information Systems and Social Change
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Sears, Roebuck and Company uses a vehicle-routing-and-scheduling system based on a geographic information system to run its delivery and home service fleets more efficiently. Although the problems to be solved can be modeled as vehicle routing problems with time windows (VRPTW), the size of the problems and thus practical complexity make these problems of both theoretical and practical interest. We constructed a series of algorithms, including the algorithm to build the origin-and-destination matrix, the algorithm to assign resources, and algorithms to perform sequencing and route improvement. The combination of GIS and OR techniques makes the system quite efficient. The system has improved the Sears technician-dispatching and home-delivery business; resulting in over $9 million in one-time savings and over $42 million in annual savings. The success of this application also suggests a promising link between GIS and OR techniques.