A Heuristic Approach for Vehicle Scheduling Problem with Time and Capacity Constraints

Abstract

Vehicle Scheduling Problem (VSP) with time and capacity constraints is a real life logistic open problem that is difficult to model and hard to solve. A typical case of study of this category is the Ready Mixed Concrete Delivery Problem (RMCDP), in which the objective of the delivery operation adheres to strict time and capacity constraints. In Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) delivery process, there is a need to predetermine the sites-trips assignments according to the problem objective and the available resources in a feasible and optimal way. In this paper, we developed a heuristic-based modeling approach for simulating and optimizing the RMCDP. This approach combines dynamic programming with tailored heuristic technique to handle all constraints. Our proposed algorithm provides efficient scheduling solution for the single depot RMCDP that maximizes the number of sites to be serviced by minimizing both of the resource-assignment to each site and the truck waiting time at the depot.