Abstract
An application of real-time changes in scheduling deliveries of road-making materials is conducted based on an implementation of a tabu search heuristic. This distribution problem deals with heterogeneous products and vehicles where the assignment of pickup points to requests needs also to be made. The problem is investigated as a full-load pickup and delivery problem with time windows. Online as well as offline experiments based on real data from a construction company in the United Kingdom are reported and discussed. Various practical issues that arise in this real-time logistical problem are also discussed and analysed. Interesting and encouraging results are reported.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Said Salhi
Said Salhi is Professor in Operational Research/Management Science (OR/MS) at Kent Business School (ex-Reader in Heuristic Optimization in the School of Mathematics at the University of Birmingham) and Director of the Centre for Heuristic Optimisation (CHO), which he has recently established (see www.kent.ac.uk/kbs/standard.php?page_id=34). He is currently the chair of the local search interest study group within the OR Society. He has published over 60 papers in academic journals mainly in the area of routing, location and general applications. He obtained his B.Sc. in Mathematics at Algiers's University and M.Sc. and Ph.D. in OR in Southampton and Lancaster, respectively. He is a Fellow of the ORS and Associate Editor of the IMA Journal of Management Mathematics.
Robert H. Currie
Robert Currie was educated in London, and worked in life assurance and in computing. He took degrees in Mathematics with the Open University, and a Ph.D. in Operational Research at Birmingham University. Since then he has worked for Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC).