Determination of lockbox collection points via simulated annealing

Abstract

This research presents a heuristic to solve the lockbox location problem via a search-based technique known as simulated annealing. In the past, more traditional mathematical programming techniques have been used to address this problem, but with limited success due to its combinatorial nature. Because simulated annealing is a search-based technique, an optimal solution is not guaranteed, but past research has demonstrated that search-based heuristics can provide reasonable solutions without the difficulties associated with the more traditional formulations. In this paper, the simulated annealing methodology is used to solve a large lockbox location problem at several differing levels of cost. The results compare favourably to solutions obtained from a K-means clustering heuristic.