A comparative study of heuristics for a two-level routing-location problem

Abstract

In the process of distributing newspapers, transfer points play the role of depots. When designing a newspaper distribution system, three types of decisions are to be made: 1. (1) number and locations of transfer points, 2. (2) Design of tours originating at the printing office to serve the transfer points, 3. (3) design of tours emanating from transfer points to serve retailers Thus, the problem is a combined location/routing problem. The question addressed is the design of a suitable heuristic for solving the problem. This paper gives a comparison of three different procedures: 1. (A) a tour construction method with implicit transfer point location, 2. (B) an Alternate Location-Allocation procedure for transfer point location (1) followed by Savings procedures four routing (2) and (3), 3. (C) a Savings procedure for routing (3) followed by a Drop procedure for location (1) and a Savings procedure for routing (2). The presently operating distribution system is simulated as a benchmark using exactly the same cost calculations as in the heuristics (A–C). As the number of retailers is approximately 4500, no attempts is made to obtain an exactly optimal solution.