Automobile chain maintenance parts delivery problem using an improved ant colony algorithm

Junjie Gao,Ping Hu,Baozhen Yao,Feng Gu,Yanan Xie

doi:10.1177/1687814016665297

Junjie Gao, Ping Hu + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/1687814016665297

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Abstract

The mode of automotive maintenance chain is gaining more and more attention in China because of its advantages such as the lower cost, higher speed, higher availability, and strong adaptability. Since the automobile chain maintenance parts delivery problem is a very complex multi-depot vehicle routing problem with time windows, a virtual center depot is assumed and adopted to transfer multi-depot vehicle routing problem with time windows to multi-depot vehicle routing problem with the virtual central depot, which is similar to a vehicle routing problem with time windows. Then an improved ant colony optimization with saving algorithms, mutation operation, and adaptive ant-weight strategy is presented for the multi-depot vehicle routing problem with the virtual central depot. At last, the computational results for benchmark problems indicate that the proposed algorithm is an effective method to solve the multi-depot vehicle routing problem with time windows. Furthermore, the results of an automobile chain maintenance parts delivery problem also indicate that the improved ant colony algorithm is feasible for solving this kind of delivery problem.

Highlights

In recent years, with the fast development of automotive industry in China, car ownership is increasing rapidly
It is predicted that the annual growth of after-sale market in future is expected to be more than 30%, and the scale of the aftermarket is expected to break 1 trillion yuan in 2018.To assure the maintenance of automobiles after being sold, there are increasing demands for automobile maintenance parts, like lubricating oils, antifreeze, transmission fluids, brakes, and so on
The results indicate that the improved ant colony optimization (IACO) algorithm is suitable for solving multi-depot vehicle routing problem with time windows (MDVRPTW)

Summary

Introduction

With the fast development of automotive industry in China, car ownership is increasing rapidly. Keywords Automobile chain maintenance parts delivery problem, multi-depot vehicle routing problem, adaptive strategy, ant colony algorithm, time windows The automobile maintenance parts delivery problem in the chain operation mode can be thought of as a multi-depot vehicle routing problem with time windows (MDVRPTW).

Results

Conclusion