Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making Combined with VRP: A Categorized Bibliographic Study

Abstract

In this research, author reviews references related to the topic of multi-criterion (goal programming, multiple objective linear and nonlinear programming, bi-criterion programming, Multi-Attribute Decision-Making, Compromise Programming, Surrogate Worth Trade-off Method) and various versions of vehicle routing problem (VRP), Multi-Depot VRP (MDVRP), VRP with time windows (VRPWTW), Stochastic VRP (SVRP), Capacitated VRP (CVRP), Fuzzy VRP (FVRP), Location VRP (LVRP), Backhauling VRP(BHVRP), Facility Location VRP (FLVRP), and Inventory control VRP (ICVRP). Although VRP is a research area with rich research works and powerful researchers, only 81 articles are found that relate various vehicle routing type problems with various multiple objectives techniques. This author found that there is no research done in some areas of VRP (i.e., FVRP, ICVRP, LRP and CVRP). It is interesting to see that this research area was completely unattractive to master students (with zero research reported) and somewhat attractive to doctoral students (with 6 researches reported). Among the many multi-criterion programming techniques available, only three of them (goal programming, bi-criterion programming, linear and nonlinear multi-objective programming) are being employed to solve the problem.